OPTICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF INITIATION AND DETONATION: I. REACTION TIME AND RELATED TOPICS. II. INITIATION AND LOW ORDER DETONATIONS. III. SUPPLEMENTARY RESULTS. Period covered March 1945-August 1946

Technical Report · Mon Oct 31 04:00:00 EST 1960

OSTI ID:4217795

Herzberg, G; Walker, G R

The duration of the detonation luminosity of various explosives was studied. A propane or water surround was used to eliminate the shock wave luminosity in the surrounding medium. Only upper limits for the luminosity times are given. For RDX-BWX 91-9 pellets this limit is 0.03 mu sec. For all other cases investigated it is 0.1 mu sec. It appears that these upper limits for the luminosity time represent also upper limits for the reaction time. The corresponding upper limits for the length of the luminosity zone are between 0.3 and 0.9 mm. These also appear to be the upper limits for the length of the reaction zone. The shape of the detonation front for RDX-BWX and TNT pellets and for cast amatol 55/45 was studied on endon photographs of long cylindrical charges. For RDX-BWX 91-9 pellets of 16 mm diameter no deviation from the geometrical wave front is found. For TNT pellets of the same diameter a slight backward bend amounting to 0.4 plus or minus 0.2 mm near the edge is found. For amatol of 31 min diameter a considerable deviation amounting to 3.7 mm is found. Any zone of incomplete detonation near the edge of the charges is less than 0.3 mm thick. In a spherical detonation wave in RDX-BWX the detonation velocity has its maximum value for all but the first two millimeters from the center. The same conclusion can be drawn from photographs of cast NENO charges in which two nearly plane detonation waves met at a 60 deg angle. (auth)

• Research Organization: Saskatchewan. Univ., Saskatoon
• NSA Number: NSA-14-005074
• OSTI ID: 4217795
• Report Number(s): NP-8186; Project XR-84
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CHEMISTRY
DETONATION WAVES
EXPLOSIONS
EXPLOSIVES
LIGHT
PELLETS
PROPANE
SHOCK WAVES
VELOCITY
WATER