L-203 Science of Cook-Off Workshop - Final Report

In April 2016 (25th to 29th April) MSIAC held the Science of Cook Off (SoCO) workshop in Atlanta, GA. This was a five day workshop aimed at discussing the complex problem of cook off. The objectives for the meeting were to improve the understanding of cook off of energetic materials and their systems. These objectives were to be achieved through discussions and presentations on chemical and physical changes, heating rate and heating conditions, critical ignition and growth conditions, reaction phenomenology, models and modelling, and sub-scale testing to system-level tests.

The five day workshop started with state of the art presentations from subject matter experts from across the MSIAC community. The topics covered aspects of cook off – ignition and growth, material damage, kinetics and material properties, violence of reaction, scaled tests for understanding cook off, modelling and test hierarchy. These hot topics were then discussed in detail over the following three days. The workshop concluded with a summary of all findings and specific outputs for the community. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the main workshop findings and how the objectives of the workshop were met.

This document is the final workshop report which provides a record of discussion held and covers the gaps in understanding. It also records how to apply our collective knowledge and tools (tests and models) to improve design and assessment of munitions response to cook off and what the understanding is of heating rate effect.