Assessment of Safety and Risk with a Microscopic Model of Detonation

Book excerpt: Whereas the current plane wave, homogeneous flow detonation physics is an excellent engineering tool for numerical predictions under given conditions, the multi-hot-spot-model is an additional tool for analyzing phenomena that cannot be explained by classical calculations. The real benefit comes from being able to understand, without any artificial assumptions, the whole phenomenology of detonations and explosions. By specifying pressure generating mechanisms, one is able to see that the current treatment of the detonics of energetic materials is only a very special - but powerful - case of explosion events and hazards. It becomes clear that physical explosions must be taken into account in any safety considerations. In these terms it is easy to understand why even liquid carbon dioxide and inert silo materials can explode. A unique collection of unexpected events, which might surprise even specialists, has resulted from the evaluation of the model.-