The fragmentation research on explosion of molten aluminum in water

The fragmentation of molten aluminum in water has a great influence on the explosion. The explosion releases huge amounts of energy which comes from the rapid heat release of molten aluminum after fragmentation. The fluid surface tensions and relative velocities can cause the instability of interface, which finally contributes to fluid fragmentation. The instability mainly shows Rayleigh-Taylor instability, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and critical Weber number criteria. A test system for shock wave effect experiment is established to study the interaction of molten aluminum with water. A digital pressure recorder (DPR) is used to measure the overpressure caused by the vapor explosion at a fixed point. The fragmented particles are collected at the different overpressures of blast wave and the velocities of molten aluminum entering into water, and the corresponding relation between fragmentation distribution area and explosion intensity is obtained.