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Simulation of the mushroom cloud generated from a high-energy explosion using large-eddy simulation

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Abstract

We performed numerical simulations of a 20 kT heavy explosion to predict the rise and diffusion of mushroom cloud after the atmospheric pressure is recovered around the burst point. We proposed a new formulation of governing equations based on the anelastic approximation and density weighted variables to implement the atmospheric stratification by employing potential temperature to account for the effect of atmospheric pressure variation in altitude. To validate the simulation results, we chose similar explosive yield cases performed at the Nevada sites to compare the mushroom cloud height and diameter. Parametric studies were performed by varying the grid size and global subgrid-scale coefficients, Cs, to find the appropriate value that guarantees reliability of simulation results. Based on the optimal simulation results, the cooling process of mushroom cloud and the suppressed ascending air currents around tropopause were investigated.

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Abbreviations

C s :

Smagorinsky SGS coefficient

C p :

Specific heat capacity

f i :

Body force

g :

Gravitational acceleration

L x :

Domain size in x direction

N x :

Grid number in x direction

P :

Pressure

P b :

Atmospheric pressure in altitude

P D :

Hydrodynamic pressure

P 0 :

Ground air pressure

q j :

Residual flux

R :

Gas constant of air

s :

Entropy

T :

Temperature

T b :

Atmospheric temperature in altitude

T i :

Temperature fluctuation

u j :

Velocity in j direction

X̄ :

Filtered variable

X̃ :

Density-weighted variable

αT :

Eddy diffusivity

β :

Thermal expansion coefficient

θ:

Potential temperature

θb :

Atmospheric potential temperature in altitude

θ:

Potential temperature fluctuation

v T :

Eddy viscosity

p :

Density

p b :

Atmospheric density in altitude

P 0 :

Ground air density

p’ :

Density fluctuation

T ij :

Residual shear stress

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by ADD (No. 17-113-601-026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computational Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Korea

    Sungjin Won & Changhoon Lee

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Korea

    Changhoon Lee

Authors
  1. Sungjin Won
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  2. Changhoon Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Changhoon Lee.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Yang Na

Sungjin Won received his B.S. (2014) from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea in Mechanical Engineering. He is an integrated Ph.D. student in the Department of Computational Science & Engineering, Yonsei University, Korea. His research interests include large-eddy simulation, immersed boundary methods, and in the area of incompressible fluid dynamics.

Changhoon Lee received his B.S. (1985) and M.S. (1987) from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea and Ph.D. (1993) from UC Berkeley, USA in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Professor in the Department of Computational Science & Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Korea. His research interests include fundamentals of turbulence, particle-turbulence interaction, numerical algorithms, air pollution modeling and stochastic processes.

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Won, S., Lee, C. Simulation of the mushroom cloud generated from a high-energy explosion using large-eddy simulation. J Mech Sci Technol 34, 2443–2453 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0520-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0520-x

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