- Author
- Lucotte, J. P.
- Title
- Measurement and Prediction of Heat Flux in Gun Propellant Fires.
- Coporate
- SNPE, France
- Book or Conf
- Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board. Explosives Safety Seminar, 20th. Volume 1. August 25-26, 1982., Norfolk, VA, 629-642 p., 1982
- Keywords
- heat flux
- Abstract
- Over a period of several years, SNPE has conducted tests using various, sometimes large quantities of hunting gunpowder and propellants. These tests are designed to determine the effects on the environment of accidental ignition during the handling of storage of the materials concerned. The hundred or so tests, performed on quantities ranging from a few kilograms to several dozen tons, served to determine empirical laws through systematic processing of the results, in order to predict the duration of combustion, the size of the fireball, and the heat flux emitted. By means of a technical approach, these laws, associated with the data in the literature on human tolerance to heat flux, make it possible to define hazardous areas. Before presenting these laws and offering an example of their application (related to French regulations), we shall first describe one of the many experiments involving large amounts of explosives.