High Brightness Imaging for Real Time Measurement of Shock, Particle, and Combustion Fronts Produced by Enhanced Blast Explosives

摘要

High brightness imaging (HBI) has been used to study the structure of the leading shock, particles immediately behind the leading shock, and the following contact surface of combustion front (i.e., the 'fireball') produced during testing of enhanced blast explosives (two kg main charge weight) in real time. These measurements are preliminary, as only six different explosives formulations were tested. However, results show that HBI can provide valuable information regarding the manner in which enhanced blast explosives differ from each other, and function in general. In particular, the high brightness imaging technique described here shows that some formulations produce particles ahead of the fireball, while others do not. Also, the distance between the leading shock and the fireball varies by formulation. Finally, for those formulations that produce particles in the space between the leading shock and the fireball, it appears that at later times the fireball expansion velocity (measured at the leading edge of the fireball) decelerates less than other formulations. For the six formulations tested thus far using HBI, we report leading shock velocities, leading shock thickness, particle images (or lack thereof), and fireball leading edge velocities.