Quantification of non-ideal explosion violence with a shock tube
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
There is significant interest in quantifying the blast violence associated with various nonideal explosions. Such data is essential to evaluate the damage potential of both explosive cookoff and terrorist explosive scenarios. We present a technique designed to measure the source energy associated with a non-ideal, asymmetrical, and three-dimensional explosion. A tube is used to confine and focus energy from a blast event into a one-dimensional, quasi-planar shock front. During propagation along the length of the tube, the wave is allowed to shocksteepen into a more ideal form. Pressure transducers then measure the shock overpressure as a function of the distance from the source. One-dimensional blast scaling theory allows calculation of the source energy from this data. This small-scale test method addresses cost and noise concerns as well as boosting and symmetry issues associated with large-scale, three-dimensional, blast arena tests. Results from both ideal explosives and non-ideal explosives are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 979401
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-09-07782; LA-UR-09-7782
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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