An unpublished manuscript of John von Neumann on shock waves in boostered detonations: historical context and mathematical analysis

DOI10.1007/S00407-020-00258-9MaRDI QIDQ2659149zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Molly Riley Knoedler, Julianna C. Kostas, Caroline Mary Hogan, Harper Kerkhoff, Chad M. Topaz

Publication date 25 March 2021

Published in Archive for History of Exact Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.06067

zbMATH Keywords

boostered detonationshydrodynamicstheory of shock waves

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of fluid mechanics (76-03)

Abstract: We report on an unpublished and previously unknown manuscript of John von Neumann and contextualize it within the development of the theory of shock waves and detonations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Von Neumann studies bombs comprising a primary explosive charge along with explosive booster material. His goal is to calculate the minimal amount of booster needed to create a sustainable detonation, presumably because booster material is often more expensive and more volatile. In service of this goal, he formulates and analyzes a partial differential equation based model describing a moving shock wave at the interface of detonated and undetonated material. We provide a complete transcription of von Neumann's work and give our own accompanying explanations and analyses, including the correction of two small errors in his calculations. Today, detonations are typically modeled using a combination of experimental results and numerical simulations particular to the shape and materials of the explosive, as the complex three dimensional dynamics of detonations are analytically intractable. Although von Neumann's manuscript will not revolutionize our modern understanding of detonations, the document is a valuable historical record of the state of hydrodynamics research during and after World War II.

Review text

The paper is devoted to a presentation and analysis of an unpublished and previously unknown manuscript of John von Neumann in which he studied bombs comprising a primary explosive charge along with explosive booster material. His goal was to calculate the minimal amount of booster needed to create a sustainable detonation, presumably because booster material is often more expensive and more volatile. In the paper under review, a complete transcription of von Neumann's work is provided and the authors' own accompanying explanations and analyses, including the correction of two small errors in his calculations are given. The manuscript is also contextualized within the development of the theory of shock waves and detonations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The authors state that though von Neumann's manuscript will not revolutionize our modern understanding of detonations, however the document is a valuable historical record of the state of hydrodynamics research during and after World War II.

Recommendations

• Shock Waves & Explosions
• The dynamics of detonation in explosive systems
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5649201
• The Zel'dovich-Neumann-Döring detonation
• Detonation in gases

Cites work

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• Chapman-Jouguet hypothesis 1899-1999: One century between myth and reality
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Cited in

(2)

• Chapman-Jouguet hypothesis 1899-1999: One century between myth and reality
• John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs: an unlikely collaboration

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