The effects of confinement and temperature on the shock sensitivity of solid explosives

The effects of heavy steel confinement on the shock sensitivity of pressed solid high explosives heated to temperatures close to thermal explosion conditions were quantitatively measured. Cylindrical flyer plates accelerated by a 101 mm diameter gas gun impacted preheated explosive charges containing multiple embedded manganin pressure gauges. The high explosive compositions tested were LX-04-01 (85 wt.% HMX and 15 wt.% Viton A) heated to 170 ° C and LX-17 (92.5 wt.% TATB and 7.5 wt.% Kel-F) heated to 250 ° C. Ignition and Growth reactive flow models for heated, heavily confined LX-04-01 and LX-17 were formulated based on the measured pressure histories. LX-17 at 250 ° C is considerably less shock sensitive when confined by steel than when confined by aluminum or unconfined. LX-04-01 at 170 ° C is only slightly less shock sensitive when confined by steel than when it is unconfined. The confinement effect is smaller in LX-04-01, because HMX particle growth i s much less than that of TATB.