Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Numerical simulations of the Los Alamos gapstick experiment

Journal Article · · AIP Conference Proceedings
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/12.0020427· OSTI ID:2246838
 [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The gapstick is a high explosive (HE) sensitivity test recently developed at Los Alamos. The experiment design was motivated by the traditional gap test and consists of a series of HE and inert pellets in a rate stick configuration. The inert pellets are made increasingly longer so that eventually the attenuated shock is unable to initiate the next HE pellet. While the gapstick is a mechanically simple experiment it poses several challenges for numerical simulation. In particular, accurately modeling the HE initiation and detonation phenomena requires a reactive burn model with sufficient mesh resolution to capture the reaction scales. In this work, the Scaled Uniform Reactive Front (SURF) and Arrhenius Wescott-Stewart-Davis (AWSD) burn models are used for simulations of a PBX 9501 (95 wt% HMX, 5% binder) gapstick. Furthermore, the material model for the inert pellet material, Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF), has a direct influence on the shock propagation and a new equation of state (EOS) calibration for PVDF is developed using available Hugoniot data. Despite some challenges, the simulations are able to reasonably predict shock transit velocities and detonation failure in the gapstick.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
2246838
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--22-31869
Journal Information:
AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 2844; ISSN 0094-243X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (9)

High-order shock-fitted detonation propagation in high explosives journal March 2017
An extension of high-order shock-fitted detonation propagation in explosives journal October 2019
Experimental validation of detonation shock dynamics in condensed explosives journal December 2005
Reactive burn models and ignition & growth concept journal January 2010
The shock induced equation of state and shear strength of polyvinylidene difluoride journal July 2006
Equation of state and reaction rate for condensed-phase explosives journal September 2005
Shock temperature dependent rate law for plastic bonded explosives journal April 2018
AWSD calibration for the HMX based explosive PBX 9501
  • Aslam, Tariq D.; Price, Matthew A.; Ticknor, Christopher
  • SHOCK COMPRESSION OF CONDENSED MATTER - 2019: Proceedings of the Conference of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/12.0000891
conference January 2020
Hugoniot equation of state of polymers report July 1995

Similar Records

AWSD Reactive Burn Model for High Explosive LX-14
Journal Article · Fri Feb 07 19:00:00 EST 2025 · Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics · OSTI ID:2514503
Re-calibration of PBX9501 SURF model
Technical Report · Thu Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · OSTI ID:1812634

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Computer simulation
Equations of state
Experiment design
Explosives
Materials
Polymers