Vulnerability of hot LX-17 to lightning strikes on exposed detonator and actuator cables

摘要

Capacitor bank discharges with peak currents up to 700 kA were used to explode test sections of detonator cable and launch the dielectric material on top of the exploding conductor as a fast flyer plate. Velocity of the launched material, pressure profiles from the impact of the launched material and impact marks formed in aluminum witness plates were used to study the stimulus that could be transmitted to high explosive in the vicinity of the exploding cable. To quantify the risk of initiating the main charge or booster insensitive high explosive (IHE) in a weapon, one must know the threshold stimulus required for shock initiation. LX-17 samples, heated to temperatures up to 250C were impacted by 3 to 10-mm-wide stripes of 0.12-mm-thick Kapton to determine the initiation threshold velocity at ambient and elevated temperatures, The strips simulate the impact of the cover coat of a flat detonator cable which has been exploded by a lighting strike. The data allow us to assess the likelihood that a lightning strike on the cable would be able to initiate a detonation of the LX- 17 main charge.