The report documents activities during the early stage of establishing a model for predicting the response of explosives to thermal stimuli. The developments focus on predicting cook-o behavior although the models may be useful in other processes, such as initiation due to heat induced by mechanical stimuli, or non-violent degradation and damage of energetic materials due to extended thermal stimuli. First, analytical and numerical theories of thermal initiation are reviewed. Then, the development of a 1D simulation program combining heat transfer and chemical kinetics of decomposition is discussed. The implementation of cook-o kinetics in the 3D program LS-DYNA is also described. Finally, suitable experiments for model development and validation are discussed.