A model to determine the response of munitions for lower order reactions

Warships sail around with various types of munitions on board. To evaluate and improve combat survivability, it is important to investigate how those munitions will react, when hit by hostile weapon effects, and determine the response of the adjacent munitions (sympathetic reaction). Since these vulnerabilities are not fully known for several (naval) munitions, certainly not for the configuration as stored, TNO Defense, Safety and Security, in cooperation with the Dutch Command Materiel and IT agency (COMMIT) of the Ministry of Defense (MoD), are investigating the munition responses when subjected to, among others, small arms weapon impact, Shaped Charge Jet (SCJ) impact, and sympathetic reaction scenarios.
The investigation comprises in-service munition testing, simulations using combined munition and platform vulnerability tools, and mitigation methods research. The munitions are tested in the configuration as stored on a platform. In case of a severe response, mitigation methods, supported by computer simulations, are developed for the munitions that are a danger to personnel and/or materiel.
An engineering shock model, based on the Energy fluence parameter E, was developed previously and has been improved for bare explosives and flyer impact, recently. The model showed to be very useful in vulnerability as well as in lethality studies and is being implemented in several codes, such as the platform vulnerability code RESIST.
The penetration/perforation response methodology was presented previously. For this response tool, a model has been developed, that is capable to estimate the response of a munition once the internal pressure of the lower order reaction is known. Besides the velocity of the casing, driven by the internal pressure, the model is capable to estimate the fragmentation of the casing due to this fast, but lower order reaction expansion.