Objectives  In order to study the afterburning effect on blast load in confined space,

  Methods  the reaction rate model is coupled to the compressible Euler equations, and the afterburning energy is added in the form of source term.The space term and time term of the coupled equations are solved discretely using the fifth-order WENO finite difference scheme and the third-order TVD-RK scheme.Then an in-house two-dimensional numerical calculation code is developed for afterburning effect in confined space, on the base of which the numerical calculations of the afterburning effects in different explosion cases in confined space are carried out, and the influences of reaction rate and afterburning energy on the blast load are discussed.

  Results  The study shows that, 1) in the case of constant afterburning energy, when the reaction rate increases, the shock wave arrives earlier, the shock wave peak and impulse increase, and the final quasi-static overpressure peak remains unchanged; 2)in the case of constant reaction rate, when the afterburning energy increases, the shock wave peak, impulse and final quasi-static overpressure peak increase.The addition of the afterburning energy can significantly enhance the strength of the blast load.

  Conclusions  The study in this paper can provide reference and guidance for the design and damage assessment of anti-explosion structures.