Modeling and Simulation of Biological Agent Response to Combustion Effects

Weapons directed at enemy stores of chemical and biological agents can cause extreme collateral damage by venting live agents from broken containers into the surrounding area. This is severely hazardous for friendly forces, noncombatants, and the surrounding environment. An Agent Defeat weapon (such as HTIs) is specifically designed to cause substantial damage to the target, while minimizing collateral damage. In response to the environment created by the weapon in the facility, the agent may get neutralized through pyrolysis/thermal inactivation or combustion or may remain viable. Most of the research thus far has focused on the pyrolysis and combustion of chemical agents and thermal inactivation of biological agents. However, the combustion of biological agents has not been examined and even the most fundamental properties such as the ignition temperature are currently not available. The objective of the proposed Phase II SBIR project is to investigate combustion neutralization technologies for biological agents and develop a model compatible with existing lethality assessment codes. This objective will be accomplished through a combination of carefully controlled sub-system level bench scale tests on live agents and simulants and modeling. In addition to measuring combustion properties such as the ignition temperature, flammability limits, and the products of combustion, the study also will yield a fundamental understanding of combustion mechanism. The models and data from this study can be used to predict the extent of combustion and fractional viability of spores in a real life combustion event.