Chemical Initiation of FAE Clouds

Laboratory experiments with liquid fuel and C1P3 (CTF) or BrF3 (BTF) have suggested that an effective FAE blast may be obtained by very rapid fuel/ agent dispersion and agent-induced combustion. Initial small-scale field tests using pellets of high-explosive for fuel and agent dispersion have yielded significant FAE blast when performed in open air, no blast when performed in an atmosphere of nitrogen, and a very strong blast when performed in an atmosphere of oxygen. A jet-structured FAE cloud of dispersed fuel and CTF has been demonstrated in which the combustion air is entrapped between the jets and entrained and burned as the jets explode. The jets are generated by the combined effects of taylor instability and indentations in the dispersing explosive charge. The mass flow that is induced by the cloud explosion generates a coherent shock wave. In the present small-scale tests, the flow is strongly divergent and the shock Mach number is only of the order of 3. In a large-scale cylindrical FAE configuration, the shock wave would not be attenuated by flow divergence and the shock Mach number would be expected to be of the order of 4 to 5. In that case, the shock wave is expected to become a detonation wave much like the detonation wave in an FAE cloud with second-event initiation.