It is estimated that more than 500,000 tons of obsolete and unwanted conventional weapons exist in the United States. The disposal of these unexploded ordnances, in an environmentally sound and cost-effective way, is of paramount importance. Open-air burning and open-air detonation (OB/OD) are two of the most widely used methods to dispose of these unwanted energetic materials. This paper describes our efforts to improve OB/OD operations through the design and testing of a new, large-scale, partially confined facility that minimizes the adverse affects of far-field noise and maximizes the afterburn of explosive by-products. Several designs were evaluated by a series of axisymmetric, time-dependent numerical simulations using FAST3D, a flux-corrected transport-based code optimized for parallel processing. The simulations are used to test various facility geometries and placements and sizes of charges to determine combinations that result in acceptable environmental impact. Comparisons of the pressure and structural analyses for 50 and 100 lb of spherically shaped RDX charges show that the 50-lb spherically shaped charge placed at a height of approximately 2.0 m resulted in an efficient detonation and maintained the structural integrity of the detonation facility.

More than 500,000 tons of obsolete and unwanted conventional weapons exist in the United States. The disposal of these unexploded ordnances, in an environmentally sound and cost-effective way, is of paramount importance. Different types of incinerators and detonation chambers have been proposed to eliminate these unwanted energetic materials. However, questions about the design of such facilities and the environmental consequences of their use must be answered. This paper describes numerical simulations of a large-scale, partially confined detonation facility. Detonation facility designs were evaluated by a series of axisymmetric, time-dependent simulations using FAST3D, a numerical model based on flux-corrected transport coupled to the virtual cell embedding algorithm for simulating complex geometries. The simulations assisted in determining the shape and size of the detonation charge mass that maintained the structural integrity of the facility. Comparisons of the pressure and structural analyses for spherically and cylindrically shaped RDX charges in a fixed volume show that the 50-lb spherically shaped charge resulted in an efficient detonation and maintained the structural integrity of the detonation facility.