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Thermobaric weapon
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Thermobaric weapons distinguish themselves from conventional explosive weapons by using atmospheric oxygen, instead of carrying an oxidizer in their explosives. They are also called high-impulse thermobaric weapons (HITs), fuel-air explosives (FAE or FAX) or sometimes fuel-air munitions, heat and pressure weapons, or vacuum bombs. They produce more explosive energy for a given size than do other conventional explosives, but have the disadvantage of being less predictable in their effect.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Terminology
* 2 Mechanism
* 3 Weapon effects
* 4 Calculations
* 5 History
o 5.1 Newest U.S. small arms FAE munitions
o 5.2 Russia tests the largest "Vacuum Bomb"
* 6 See also
* 7 External links
* 8 Footnotes
[edit] Terminology
The term thermobaric is derived from the Greek words for “heat” and “pressure”: thermobarikos (θερμοβαρικός), from thermos (θερμός), hot + baros (βάρος), weight, pressure + suffix -ikos (-ικός), suffix -ic.
Conventional explosive weapons such as the Daisy Cutter incorporate both fuel and oxidizer. In contrast, a Fuel-Air Explosive consists only of fuel and a dispersing mechanism, using oxygen from the air as the oxidizer.
[edit] Mechanism
The weapon consists of a container of either a volatile liquid or finely powdered solid. The solid could be an explosive metal powder or reactive organic. A high explosive charge is placed in the middle of the fuel.
The weapon is initiated upon dropping or firing, and the explosive charge (or some other dispersal mechanism) bursts open the container and disperses the fuel in a cloud. The fuel then reacts with the atmospheric oxygen.
[edit] Weapon effects
Fuel-air explosives represent the military application of the vapor cloud explosion and dust explosion accidents that have long bedeviled a variety of industries. An accidental fuel-air explosion may occur as a result of a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE), for example when a tank containing liquified petroleum gas bursts. Silo explosions, caused by the ignition of finely-powdered atmospheric dust, are another example.[1]
Fuel-air explosives disperse an aerosol cloud of fuel which is ignited by an embedded detonator to produce an explosion. The rapidly expanding wave front due to overpressure flattens all objects within close proximity of the epicenter of the aerosol fuel cloud, and produces debilitating damage well beyond the flattened area. The main destructive force of FAE is high pressure. More importantly, the duration of the overpressure gives it an edge over conventional explosives and makes fuel-air explosives useful against hard targets such as minefields, armored vehicles, aircraft parked in the open, and bunkers.
There are dramatic differences between explosions involving high explosives and vapor clouds at close distances. For the same amount of energy, the high explosive blast overpressure is much higher and the blast impulse is much lower than that from a vapor cloud explosion. The shock wave from a TNT explosion is of relatively short duration, while the blast wave produced by an explosion of hydrocarbon material displays a relatively long duration. The duration of the positive phase of a shock wave is an important parameter in the response of structures to a blast.
The effects produced by FAEs (a long-duration high pressure and heat impulse) are often likened to the effects produced by low-yield nuclear weapons, but without the problems of radiation. However, this is inexact; for all current and foreseen sub-kiloton-yield nuclear weapon designs, prompt radiation effects predominate, producing some secondary heating; very little of the nominal yield is actually delivered as blast. The resulting injury dealt by either weapon on a targeted population is nonetheless great.
Some fuels used, such as ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, act like mustards. A device using such fuels can be dangerous if the fuel fails to completely ignite; the device is at risk of producing the effects of a chemical weapon.
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