title: Mitigation of TNT and Destex explosion effects using water mist.
abstract: The effects water mist has on the overpressures produced by the detonation of 50 lb equivalent of high explosives (HE) TNT and Destex in a chamber is reported. The overpressures for each charge density were measured with and without mist preemptively sprayed into the space. A droplet analyzer was placed in the chamber prior to the detonation experiments to characterize the water mist used to mitigate the explosion overpressures. The impulse, initial blast wave, and quasi-static overpressure measured in the blast mitigation experiments were reduced by as much as 40%, 36%, 35% for TNT and 43%, 25%, 33% for Destex when water mist was sprayed 60s prior to detonation at a concentration of 70 g/m(3) and droplet Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) 54 microm. These results suggest that current water mist technology is a potentially promising concept for the mitigation of overpressure effects produced from the detonation of high explosives.
authors.affiliation: Naval Research Laboratory, Chemistry Division, Navy Technology Center for Safety and Survivability, SW Washington, DC 20375, United States. Heather.Willauer@nrl.navy.mil
authors.forename: Heather D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Willauer
authors.forename: Ramagopal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ananth
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Farley
authors.forename: Frederick W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D005107:Explosions / Q000517:prevention & control*; D053834:Explosive Agents; D011312:Pressure; D014303:Trinitrotoluene; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D053834:Explosive Agents; D014867:Water; D014303:Trinitrotoluene