Explosives malfunction from sympathetic detonation to shock desensitization
- Queen`s Univ., Kingston, Ontario (Canada). Dept. of Mining Engineering
Explosives malfunction due to shock waves is a serious concern for successful blasting results. Malfunction can range from sympathetic detonation to desensitization and modification of firing times of conventional pyrotechnic detonators. Decked charges consisting of commercial emulsion explosives having a detonator and a primer were placed in 10cm diameter blastholes and their performance was recorded. Due to the limited length of the holes the events were mainly sympathetic detonations although desensitization was also recorded. Pressure measurements along the stemming column showed that shock waves produced by an explosive have a significant amplitude even at relatively large distances away from the detonating explosive. It was found that 2m away from a detonating charge the pressures in the stemming material were above 0.1 GPa indicating that there is potential for primers and detonators to malfunction. Parallel charges consisting of a commercial emulsion explosive with a diameter of 32mm were confined in 2mm thick steel tubes and initiation was attempted using detonators having a delay interval of 25ms. The charges were placed in sand and the velocity of detonation of the acceptor charge was recorded using a continuous resistance probe system. Carbon resistors were also placed in the same position as the acceptor charge to examine the dynamic pressures that were applied to the charge. Sympathetic detonation, complete desensitization, partial desensitization and properly sequenced detonations were observed as the distance between charges was increased from 76 mm to 305 mm. Delay detonators were also tested in a similar to the last configuration. Modification of firing times was observed at distances between 150 and 360 mm.
- OSTI ID:
- 398322
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9401127--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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