Material Characterization of Chemical and Biological Agents

Hydrocodes, CFD codes and aerosolization codes are routinely used to model effects such as shocking of chemical and biological agents inside storage containers subjected to fragments impact, agent expulsion upon container failure and agent dispersion inbunkers. Such codes need accurate properties of the materials stored, such as chemical and biological agent slurries, to make realistic predictions. While some of these material properties are currently available in different reports, there is no singlesource that provides these data in the format required for the execution of the hydrocodes. Here, we propose to combine literature reviews with innovative experimental measurements and develop necessary properties data. Examples of experimentaltechniques include measurement of material EOS and shock response using shock tubes, heat capacity using thermo gravimetric analysis, and surface tension using pendant drop from a capillary tube. The key findings will be encapsulated into algorithms tocalculate material characteristics. These algorithms will be combined into a toolkit that will interface with the hydrocodes and CFD codes of interest to the Air Force and provide them with necessary properties data. The proposed toolkit can be used invarious defense applications such as modeling the collateral effects due to weapons attacks on chemical and biological agent storage facilities; hazard assessments of various facilities; and in designing techniques for agent defeat. The experimentalmethodology developed here will be useful in developing the toolkit for other chemical and biological agent formulations. The methodology has important applications in pharmaceutical and environmental analysis industries.