Structural Damage Equivalence of Selected Explosive Materials Based on the Response of Thin Circular Plates Subjected to Blast Loading

摘要

Determining explosive equivalence remains a complex problem because it is a function of the effect of interest. The metric of interest in the present work is blast damage to a thin aluminum plate. In order to determine structural damage equivalence of different explosive materials, Sandia National Laboratories developed a circular plate test method. The present work uses this test method to determine explosive equivalence of selected explosive formulations. It is important to conduct this equivalence testing because actual explosive performance may deviate from the optimal performance predicted by thermochemical calculations. Each test was conducted by detonating an explosive charge located at a standoff distance of 20 inches from the center of the target. High speed 3D digital image correlation was used to capture the deformation of the plate as a function of time. Metrics developed from the deformation were then used in order to compare relative damage between the explosive material of interest and C-4 (the reference explosive). These metrics were used to determine explosive equivalence for each explosive material.