THE TERM FLOW REGIME IN MULTIPHASE FLOWS REFERS TO THE TEMPO-SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF PHASES AND HAS BEEN STUDIED EXTENSIVELY FOR PIPE FLOWS.    STILL, THE SUBJECT HAS NOT BEEN ADVANCED BEYOND PREDICTIONS BASED ON EMPIRICISM.    THE COMPLEXITY BECOMES MANIFOLD IN PROBLEMS WHERE THE WHOLE EVOLUTION IS TRANSIENT, AS IS THE CASE OF A LIQUID MASS BEING EXPLOSIVELY DISPERSED IN AN OPEN DOMAIN, i.e.    THE ATMOSPHERE.    THE CANONICAL PROBLEM HERE IS AN INITIALLY STATIONARY CONFIGURATION IN WHICH A SPHERICAL/CYNDRICAL MASS SURROUNDS AN EXPLOSIVE CHARGE OF LIKE GEOMETRY.

MORE COMPLEX SITUATIONS INVOLVE AN ENVELOPING METALLIC SHELL, CHARGES DISTRIBUTED IN AN UNEVEN FASHION, AND/OR THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY FLYING AT SUPERSONIC SPEEDS TO EVENTUALLY EXPLODE FAR FROM OR ON THE GROUND.    WE KNOW THAT THE END RESULT IN ALL CASES WILL BE CLOUDS OF LIQUID PARTICLES (DROPLETS); OUR PROBLEM IS TO PREDICT THE BASIC CLOUD CHARACTERISTICS INCLUDING DIMENSIONS, LIQUID DENSITIES WITHIN, AND PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS (EDL2006b, EDL2010).

THIS FINAL RESULT EVIDENTLY DEPENDS ON THE OTHER TWO THRUSTS OF OUR RESEARCH, AEROBREAKUP AND MULTIPHASE INTERACTIONS.    THE EMERGENT BEHAVIOR WE SEEK IS THE TRANSIENT EVOLUTION OF THE FLOW REGIMES, FROM AN INITIALLY COMPACT LIQUID MASS TO A RAPIDLY EXPANDING ZONE OF LIQUID MASSES AT VARIOUS/VARRYING DEGREES OF DISAGGREGATION AND SPATIAL DENSITIES.

MORE THAN ANYTHING, THIS BRINGS TO FOCUS THE IMPORTANCE OF A HYPERBOLIC EFM THAT IS PHYSICALLY CORRECT AS PURSUED UNDER THE “EXPLOSIVE DISPERSAL OF PARTICLES” THRUST.    OUR APPROACH IN THIS INTEGRATIVE PORTION OF THE WORK IS BASED ON INCREASED ROLE OF SPECIALLY DESIGNED AND CHARACTERIZED EXPERIMENTS, INCLUDING THE USE OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES.