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Title: Air cushion effect in the short-pulse initiation of explosives

Conference ·
OSTI ID:615625

When thin flyer plates are used to shock initiate high explosive (HE), any air present ahead of the flyer may cause a significant desensitization of the HE. The effect of the air in cushioning the impact of plastic flyers faced with metal films is analyzed here with MACRAME, a code which calculates wave interactions and traces wave propagation. The authors find that the second air shock into the HE has sufficient pressure to collapse the HE to crystal density or higher. Precompressed regions of HE do not react rapidly when the main impact pulse does arrive. Define y{sup *} as the depth where the major shock overtakes the precompression wave (for no air y{sup *} {r_arrow} 0). For various flyers and air combinations, the authors compare pressure profiles at y = y{sup *} + {epsilon}. The shock pressure profile associated with metal film impact may be greatly attenuated at the depth y{sup *}. Density profiles (p(t) at y) show that the shock heating for y > y{sup *} is greater than that for y < y{sup *}.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
615625
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-97-2369; CONF-970707-10; ON: DE97008671; TRN: 98:002118
Resource Relation:
Conference: Meeting of the topical group on shock compression of condensed matter of the American Physical Society, Amherst, MA (United States), 27 Jul - 1 Aug 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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