Professor Martin Braithwaite
Academic Visitor
Martin Braithwaite studied Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, London. He received a PhD in molecular energy transfer in Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. This was followed by post-doctoral fellowships at the Universities of British Colombia and Southern California as well as at JILA (NIST/ University of Colorado, Boulder) in energy transfer and laser-induced chemistry.
From 1978 he worked from Imperial Chemical Industries in the UK as Company Research Associate covering aspects of chemical reaction engineering, process safety, explosion and detonation science.
Subsequently, Martin held the William Penney Chair of Chemical Physics at Cranfield University in addition to being a visiting professor at TU Delft, Imperial College and the University of Queensland. He has been an academic visitor in the Laboratory for Scientific Computing since 2013.
Professional Interests
Martin’s recent research has focussed on condensed phase detonations in heterogeneous explosives. He is an active consultant in this field as well as explosives safety issues. Industrial clients have included AEL, AWE, BHP, BME, CSBP, De Beers, Downer, Dyno, Johnex, Lucite, Orica & Rio Tinto as well as an expert witness role in cases involving ammonium nitrate.
He is an Associate and Expert Panel member of SAFEX.
Publications
Key publications:Modelling applied to the problems of Energetic Materials Characterisation: Design of Pyrotechnic devices and Explosives Calorimetric studies, M Braithwaite, N Davies, W Evans and P D Lightfoot, International Pyrotechnic Symposium, IPS 2002 USA
Thermodynamic Representations for Solid Products in Ideal Detonation Predictions, M Braithwaite, N L Allan, 12th Symposium (Intnl) on Detonation (2002), ONR
Temperature based Reactive Flow Model for ANFO, R M Mulford, D C Swift & M Braithwaite, 12th Symposium (Intnl) on Detonation (2002), ONR
Towards the Equation of State for Detonation Products: a Benchmark for Thermochemical Codes, O Heuze, M Braithwaite, DC Swift, K Tanaka and S Victorov, High Dynamic Pressures V, St Malo (2003)
On conductivity changes in shocked potassium chloride, N K Bourne, D Townsend & M Braithwaite, J Appl Phys, 97(12) 185-188 (2005)
Explosive decomposition of ethylene oxide at elevated condition: effect of ignition energy, nitrogen dilution, and turbulence, Pekalski A.A., Zevenbergen, J.F., Braithwaite, M., Lemkowitz, S.M. & Pasman, H.J, J. Haz. Mat. A118 (2005) 19-34
Steady State Detonations in Cylindrical Sticks of Explosives, G J Sharpe and M Braithwaite, J Engineering Mathematics, 53(1), 39-58 (2005)
Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Steady Detonations in Highly Non- Ideal Explosives, M Braithwaite, C V B Cunningham & G J Sharpe, 13th Intnl Detonation Symposium, Norfolk Va (2006)
A Theoretical Study of the Dependence of Non-Ideal Detonation and Diameter Effect on the Decomposition Rates in Cylindrical Charges of Polytropic Explosive, M Braithwaite & M Cowperthwaite, 13th Intnl Detonation Symposium, Norfolk Va (2006)
Simulation of real detonations as an energy source term for the Hybrid Stress Blasting Model, 9th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, M. Braithwaite, G.J. Sharpe & G.P. Chitombo, Granada 2009 (Balkema)