Introduction

Detonation hazards are typically characterized by several detonability parameters (critical energy, critical tube diameter, minimum tube diameter) that can each be related to the detonation cell width [Lee (1984)], which provides a convenient measurable length scale. The novel mixtures encountered in the Hanford waste tanks provide a challenge because cell-width data are scarce and the mixtures are sensitive to small changes in some variables (e.g. N₂O and O₂ concentrations). One approach to determining the detonability of the mixtures of interest is to measure cell widths under a range of possible conditions. Another, complementary approach, is to compute reaction zone thicknesses behind idealized detonation waves, derive a correlation between measured cell widths and these computed reaction zone thicknesses, and use the correlation to predict cell widths at untested conditions. Reaction zone calculations rely on detailed reaction rate mechanisms, so some effort is required to ensure that the calculations are meaningful. However, the empirical correlation to cell width masks some uncertainty in the reaction zone calculations. Following this combined approach, cell-width data of direct usefulness to hazard analysis are generated and a rational means of interpolating and extrapolating these data is developed.