Publications Details

Multidimensional thermal-chemical cookoff modeling

Baer, M.R.; Gross, R.J.; Gartling, D.K.; Hobbs, M.L.

Multidimensional thermal/chemical modeling is an essential step in the development of a predictive capability for cookoff of energetic materials in systems subjected to abnormal thermal environments. COYOTE II is a state-of-the-art two- and three-dimensional finite element code for the solution of heat conduction problems including surface-to-surface thermal radiation heat transfer and decomposition chemistry. Multistep finite rate chemistry is incorporated into COYOTE II using an operator-splitting methodology; rate equations are solved element-by-element with a modified matrix-free stiff solver, CHEMEQ. COYOTE II is purposely designed with a user-oriented input structure compatible with the database, the pre-processing mesh generation, and the post-processing tools for data visualization shared with other engineering analysis codes available at Sandia National Laboratories. As demonstrated in a companion paper, decomposition during cookoff in a confined or semi-confined system leads to significant mechanical behavior. Although mechanical effect are not presently considered in COYOTE II, the formalism for including mechanics in multidimensions is under development.