CWA Thermal Defeat in Reactive Atmospheres
Abstract
These mechanistic and thermal kinetic studies of chemical weapons entail investigating chemical warfare agents in thermal environments in both unreactive and highly reactive environments. All work will be conducted by a team lead by Southwest Research Institute scientist, Dr. Matthew Blais with support from Clemson University scientist, Dr. Carlos Garcia and University of Texas, San Antonio scientist, Dr. George Negrete. The studies shall employ the thoroughly validated reactor developed by Dr. Blais and his team in Support of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center and DTRA for studying the thermal breakdown mechanisms and kinetics for CWA. Thermal kinetic studies for atmospheres including relevant absolute humidity, various oxygen concentrations, in specific reactive vapors environments such as I2 and HI shall be conducted. Identification of breakdown products will elucidate mechanisms and concentrations of residual CWA, and will be used to capture kinetic results. Multiple reaction times will be performed by controlling reactor flow rate, and multiple temperature and concentration conditions of reactants will be employed to perform sensitivity analysis and activation energies of the processes. A second set of experiments will address another major data gap that exists relevant to later time frames of CWA source terms for CWA emission after a weapons defeat event. Many containers may be punctured, crushed or damaged with insufficient hydrodynamic ram to volatilize CWA resulting in pooling of the agent on the floor. The ability of CWA to sustain pool fires and their degree of combustion in a well ventilated and under ventilated fire condition as source terms for continued release and down-wind impact will be determined. As a part of this study evaporation rates from CWA pools at controlled temperatures will be characterized and the data reported. A specific test apparatus will be designed and constructed that controls temperature, oxygen concentration and ventilation rate. The system will be monitored using a MINICAMS, impingers and sorbent tubes to capture CWA concentration, effluent breakdown products and to provide redundant agent capture for greater confidence. Impinger and sorbent tubes provide the ability to perform dilutions in case of high level CWA concentrations exceeding the calibration range of the near real time monitoring. Data obtained from these studies will provide parameters for improving the predictive potential of chemical agent defeat weapons performance models. The ultimate result is reduced collateral lethality to surrounding populations and improved agent defeat.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 26, 2016
- Source ID
- HDTRA11610030
Entities
People
- Matthew Blais
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- Southwest Research Institute