• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.127-143
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• 2016

Over the decades, TNT has been produced indiscriminately to be utilized in many fields owing to its ability to manipulate the explosion. Yet, the proper technique for disposal of TNT and the waste residues had not been developed so that the large amount of TNT waste was being piled up. Upon the agreement to demilitarization of old weapon, a study on the disposal methods for TNT and the waste treatment have been raised for their dangerous nature. Since then, from burying in landfill to utilizing supercritical fluid-based oxidation, a lot of research is actively ongoing, but little progress has been made in Korea compared to developed countries. This review paper covers all the technologies developed for TNT and its waste disposal including the concept, advantage, and disadvantage of those technologies. Also, suggested here are the future research directions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.245-259
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• 2020

Tunnels have become an indispensable part of metro cities. Blast resistance design of tunnel has attracted the attention of researchers due to numerous implosion event. Present paper deals with the non-linear finite element analysis of rock tunnel having shear zone subjected to internal blast loading. Abaqus Explicit schemes in finite element has been used for the simulation of internal blast event. Structural discontinuity i.e., shear zone has been assumed passing the tunnel cross-section in the vertical direction and consist of Highly Weathered Granite medium surrounding the tunnel. Mohr-Coulomb constitutive material model has been considered for modelling the Highly Weathered Granite and the shear zone material. Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP), Johnson-Cook (J-C), Jones-Wilkins-Lee (JWL) equation of state models are used for concrete, steel reinforcement and Trinitrotoluene (TNT) simulation respectively. The Coupled-Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) method of modelling for TNT explosive and air inside the tunnel has been adopted in this study. The CEL method incorporates the large deformations for which the traditional finite element analysis cannot be used. Shear zone orientations of 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90°, with respect to the tunnel axis are considered to see their effect. It has been concluded that 60° orientation of shear zone presents the most critical situation.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.133-139
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• 2015

Attention to munitions constituents such as 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) in the firing ranges is increasing due to their toxicity and high mobility to the environment. It is helpful to use a systemic model to predict the amount of contaminants for the establishment of environmental management of firing ranges. This study employed Training Range Environmental Evaluation and Characterization System (TREECS) program to estimate the mobility characteristics of TNT and RDX via groundwater leaching, soil erosion and surface water runoff. The prediction results of the TNT and RDX migration with TREECS showed that 68% of initial TNT and 21% of initial RDX were discharged through the soil erosion and the 20% of initial TNT and 54% of initial RDX ran out the firing range via the groundwater leaching. The rest of the initial TNT and RDX moved to adjacent surface water via surface runoff. The data suggest that soil erosion and surface runoff occupying 80% of TNT to the total amount are important migration pathways. On the other hand, groundwater leachning occupying 54% to the total amount was also important pathway for RDX.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.103-110
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• 2015

Nitro-aromatic Compounds (NACs) of explosives are structurally non-degradable materials that have an adverse effect to humans and ecosystems in case of emissions in natural due to the strong toxicity. In this study, batch test in the laboratory-scale has been conducted to find some process parameters of alkaline hydrolysis by considering the characteristics of NACs which are unstable in a base status and field application evaluation have been performed on the batch test results. Based on the experimental results of both laboratory and pilot-scale test, the optimum conditions of parameters for the alkaline hydrolysis of soils contaminated with explosives were pH 12.5, above the solid-liquid ratio 1 : 3, above the room temperature and 30 minute reaction time. In these four process parameters, the most important influencing factor was pH, and the condition of above pH 12.0 was necessary for high contaminated soils (more than 60 mg/kg). In the case of above pH 12.5, the efficiency of alkaline hydrolysis was very high regardless of the concentrations of contaminated soils. At pH 11.5, the removal efficiency of TNT was increased from 76.5% to 97.5% when the temperature in reactor was elevated from room temperature to 80℃. This result shows that it is possible to operate the alkaline hydrolysis at even pH 11.5 due to increased reaction rate depending on temperature adjustment. The results found in above experiments will be able to be used in alkaline hydrolysis for process improvement considering the economy.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.28-36
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• 2015

Simultaneous mobility reduction of explosives and heavy metals in an operational range by monopotassium phosphate (MKP) and bentonite spreading technology was investigated. Potassium ion and phosphate ion in MKP act as explosives sorption enhancer and insoluble heavy metal phosphate formation, respectively, while bentonite acts as the explosives adsorbent. Then, the decrease in surface water concentration of the pollutants and resulting risk reduction for local residents of the operational range, by MKP/bentonite application was estimated. Under untreated scenario, the noncancer hazard index (HI) exceeded unity on February, July and August, mainly due to 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT); however, MKP/bentonite treatment was expected to lower the noncancer hazard index by decreasing the surface water concentration of explosives and heavy metals (especially TNT). For example, on July, estimated surface water concentration and HI of TNT were 0.01 mg/L and 1.1, respectively, meanwhile the sorption coefficient of TNT was 3.9 mg¹⁻ⁿkg⁻¹Lⁿ. However, by MKP/bentonite treatment, the TNT sorption coefficient increased to 113.8 mg¹⁻ⁿkg⁻¹Lⁿ and the surface water concentration and HI decreased to about 0.002 mg/L and 0.2, respectively. Based on the result, it can be concluded that MKP/bentonite spreading is a benign technology that can mitigate the risk posed by the pollutants migration from operational ranges.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.556-562
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• 2009

The biological treatment of TNT-containing wastewater, known commonly as pink water, was investigated using a stirred tank reactor with Stenotrophomonas maltophilia OK-5 bacterial culture. S. maltophilia OK-5 exhibited effective degradation of TNT contained in pink water, completely degrading TNT (100 mg/L) within 6 days of incubation. The dark-red brown color derived from Hydride-Meisenheimer complex became more pronounced during the incubation period, which was determined quantitatively. High-pressure liquid chromatography was used to measure residual TNT, which also resolved the metabolic intermediates (i.e., 2,4-dinitrotoluene, 2,6-dinitrotoluene and 2,4-dinitro-6-hydroxytoluene). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to verify these intermediates. Quantification of the nitroreductase (pnrB) gene isolated from S. maltophilia OK-5 growing in pink water was performed with real-time PCR. The amount of pnrB gene copies increased to $10^3$-fold after 5 days of incubation time.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.417-443
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• 2020

Tunnels have been an integral part of human civilization. Due to complexity in its design and structure, the stability of underground structures under extreme loading conditions has utmost importance. Increased terrorism and geo-political conflicts have forced the engineers and researchers to study the response of underground structures, especially tunnels under blast loading. The present study has been carried out to seek the response of tunnel structures under blast load using the finite element technique. The tunnel has been considered in quartzite rock of northern India. The Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model has been adopted for the elastoplastic behaviour of rock. The rock model surrounding the tunnel has dimensions of 30 m x 30 m x 35 m. Both unlined and lined (concrete) tunnel has been studied. Concrete Damage Plasticity model has been considered for the concrete lining. Four different parameters (i.e., tunnel diameter, liners thickness, overburden depth and mass of explosive) have been varied to observe the behaviour under different condition. To carry out blast analysis, Coupled-Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) modelling has been adopted for modelling of TNT (Trinitrotoluene) and enclosed air. JWL (Jones-Wilkins-Lee) model has been considered for TNT explosive modelling. The paper concludes that deformations in lined tunnels follow a logarithmic pattern while in unlined tunnels an exponential pattern has been observed. The stability of the tunnel has increased with an increase in overburden depth in both lined and unlined tunnels. Furthermore, the tunnel lining thickness also has a significant effect on the stability of the tunnel, but in smaller diameter tunnel, the increase in tunnel lining thickness has not much significance. The deformations in the rock tunnel have been decreased with an increase in the diameter of the tunnel.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.493-500
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• 2003

The effect of reductive treatment with elemental iron on the extent of mineralization by Fenton oxidation was studied for the explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexahydro-l,3,5-trinitro-l,3,5-triazine (RDX) using a completely-stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The results support the hypothesis that TNT and RDX are reduced with elemental iron to products that are oxidized more rapidly and completely by Fenton's reagent. Iron pretreatment enhanced the extent of TOC removal by approximately $20\%\;and\;60\%$ for TNT and RDX, respectively. Complete TOC removal was achieved for TNT and RDX solutions with iron pretreatment under optimal conditions. On the other hand, without iron pretreatment, complete mineralization of TNT and RDX solutions were not achieved even with much higher $H_2O_2$ and $Fe^{2+}$ concentrations. The bench-scale iron treatment-Fenton oxidation integrated system showed more than $95\%$ TOC removal for TNT and RDX solutions under optimal conditions. The proposed zero-valent iron-Fenton process was evaluated with pink water from the Iowa Army ammunition plant. Results from batch and column experiments show that TNT, RDX, and octahydro-l,3,5,7-tetranitro-l,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) were completely removed from the pink water and that triaminotoluene (TAT) and ${NH_4}^+$ were recovered as products in reduction with zero-valent iron. By using an integrated system, $83.3\pm4.2\%$ of TOC was removed in a CSTR with 10 mM of $Fe^{2+}$ and 50 mM of $H_2O_2$. These results suggest that the reduction products of TNT and RDX are more rapidly and completely mineralized by Fenton oxidation and that a sequential iron treatment-Fenton oxidation process may be a viable technology for pink water treatment.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.811-818
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• 2018

A fire and explosion accident caused by a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) welding and cutting torch gas leak occurred 10 m underground at the site of reinforcement work for bridge columns, killing four people and seriously injuring ten. We conducted a comprehensive investigation into the accident to identify the fundamental causes of the explosion by analyzing the structure of the construction site and the properties of propane, which was the main component of LPG welding and cutting work used at the site. The range between the lower and upper explosion limits of leaking LPG for welding and cutting work was examined using Le Chatelier's formula; the behavior of LPG concentration change, which included dispersion and concentration change, was analyzed using the fire dynamic simulator (FDS). We concluded that the primary cause of the accident was combustible LPG that leaked from a welding and cutting torch and formed a explosion range between the lower and upper limits. When the LPG contacted the flame of the welding and cutting torch, LPG explosion occurred. The LPG explosion power calculation was verified by the blast effect computation program developed by the Department of Defense Explosive Safety Board (DDESB). According to the fire simulation results, we concluded that the welding and cutting torch LPG leak caused the gas explosion. This study is useful for safety management to prevent accidents caused by LPG welding and cutting work at construction sites.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.13-22
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• 2015

The combined impact of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) fouling and inorganic ($CaSO_4,Ca_3(PO_4)_2$) scaling on the retention of TNT (2, 4, 6-Trinitrotoluene), RDX (Hexahydro-1, 3, 5-trinitro-1, 3, 5-triazine) and HMX (1, 3, 5, 7-Tetranitro-1, 3, 5, 7-tetrazocane) explosive contaminants by nano-filtration membrane were studied, since organic fouling and salt scaling are the major limitations for membrane filtration. Results reported here indicate that DOM fouling layer with a humic acid does not necessarily lead to an immediate loss of permeate flux but can result in a severe impact on the flux loss when both humic acid and inorganic scaltants were presented simultaneously. The $Ca_3(PO_4)_2$ mixed with humic acid showd most sever flux loss (42%) compared to that of only humic acid presence (8%). It could be a result that the scaling formation of the NF membrane was dominated by cake layer formation of DOM and it was along with pore blocking by the formation of crystals inside the porous active matrix of the NF membrane. In addition, these results indicated that the membrane selectivity of the explosives retention trended correlated with respect to increasing explosives size (listed by MW) based on greater steric interactions and followed the order (MW, g $mol^{-1}$; removal, %): HMX (296.15; 83%) ${\gg}$ RDX (222.12; 49%) ≋ TNT (227.13; 32%). Because the scaling and fouling layer could lead to a additional cake-enhanced concentration polarisation effect, the retention of explosives with the presence of humic acid in the feed solution and inorganic scaling formation on top of an organic fouling layer do not differ substantially retention from that of pure DI feed and NaCl solution.