Numerical Study on the Whole Process of Fireball Evolution in Strong Explosion*

Abstract

With the actual mean free path for radiation in air and a simplified nuclear device, a one-dimension simulation research on fireball phenomenon in a sea level atmosphere is carried out based on the multi-group radiation hydrodynamic codes (RDMG). It is shown that our theoretical calculations can describe the whole process of the fireball evolution for strong explosions from the early X-ray expansion stage to the shock wave propagation stage. The radius of the shock wave and the brightness of the fireball are in good agreement with the experimental results. The whole thermal radiation power curve of the fireball evolution for strong atmospheric explosion at sea level is plotted for the first time. The impact of radiation opacity of the nuclear device material on the early fireball phenomenon is also studied. It is found that trajectories of the radiation fronts and case shocks change with the opacity of equivalent device material. From our simulations, we find that only the early fireball depends on the details of the nuclear device, and after the formation of main shock, the evolution is determined by the properties of hot air for strong atmospheric explosion.