Publications Details

Implementation of the CREST Reactive Burn Model in CTH – Six Years Later

Kittell, David E.; Brown, Judith A.; Whitworth, Nicholas; Handley, Caroline; Tuttle, Leah

There has always been a desire to port high-fidelity reactive flow models from one code to another. For example, the AWE reactive burn model known as CREST has been or is being implemented in several of the U.S. Department of Energy hydrocodes. Those involved with reactive burn model implementation recognize the challenges immediately, e.g., Eulerian versus Lagrangian frameworks, the form of the equation of state, the closure relations, etc. In this work, we report the development of the CREST reactive burn model in CTH, a multidimensional, multi-material hydrocode developed by Sandia National Laboratories, following an earlier implementation shown at the last International Detonation Symposium. Results include code-to-code comparisons between CTH and the AWE hydrocode PERUSE, focusing on the simulated particle velocity histories during a shock-to-detonation transition, and corresponding to previous gas gun impact experiments as well as new model verification studies. Lessons learned are provided, including discussions of the numerical accuracy, in addition to the role of artificial viscosity and artificial viscous work. Finally, simulation results are shown to compare the Snowplough versus P-Alpha porosity model options.