Carbon clustering kinetics in detonation wave propagation

Much of the nonideality of insensitive carbon rich explosives such as TATB is thought to be caused by a late-time slow release of energy associated with diffusion limited growth of carbon clusters. We have adapted Shaw and Johnson’s approximate analytic solution of the Smoluchowski rate equations for the evolution of the cluster size distribution function for use in hydrodynamic calculations and in Wood and Kirkwood approximate theory for the detonation velocity-curvature relationship. Solutions for the effect of carbon cluster growth on the structure of the reaction zone are obtained, and the results are compared with available experimental data.