Euler–Lagrange simulation of high pressure shock waves

•We couple Eulerian and Lagrangian FEM to model high pressure generating processes.•We apply the multi-material Eulerian technique to model air-blast and to predict shock wave propagation.•We model the overdriven detonation using the penalty method.•The Euler–Lagrange coupling is shown to manage shock–structure interaction problems.

This paper presents the numerical simulation of overdriven detonation (or O.D.D.) that occurs when a high velocity object impacts an explosive. The pressure and the velocity at this state are higher than those of the Chapman–Jouguet (C–J) state. First, before the simulation of this event, a study of PBX air blast by using multi-material Eulerian method is presented. Pressure peaks are computed for several distances from the explosive. Second, the O.D.D. phenomenon is modeled by the Euler–Lagrange penalty coupling, which permits to couple a Lagrangian mesh of the flyer plate to multi-material Eulerian mesh of explosives and air. This coupling gives us the high detonation velocities in the acceptor explosive and demonstrates that it is able to handle shock–structure interaction problems.