Publications Details

Steam explosion triggering and propagation: Hypotheses and evidence

Berman, M.

Various models of steam explosion triggering and propagation are reviewed. An analogy is drawn between steam explosions and chemical combustion, stressing that a continuum of steam explosion intensities can exist, ranging from very weak deflagration-like phenomena to full-scale detonation-like explosions. Evidence is presented to support several hypotheses: (1) that most, if not all, reported steam explosions were not strong steady thermal detonations; (2) that unsteady, oscillatory and partial-reaction steam explosions may exist for a wide range of fragmentation times; (3) that steam explosions may have large reaction zones (or interaction regions) of the order of several meters; (4) that fragmentation times of the order of 40--200 /mu/s may be fast enough to sustain strong thermal detonations; (5) that explosion strength can increase dramatically with trigger strength; and (6) that the product of pressure and impulse may be good measure of trigger strength. New experimental data and calculations are presented to support some of these hypotheses. 84 refs., 19 figs., 1 tab.