Cylindrical converging shock initiation of reactive materials

Abstract

Recent research has been conducted that builds on the Forbes et al. (1997) study of inducing a rapid solid state reaction in a highly porous core using a converging cylindrical shock driven by a high explosive. The high explosive annular charge used in this research to compress the center reactive core was comparable to PBXN-110. Some modifications were made on the physical configuration of the test item for scale-up and ease of production. The reactive materials (I 2O 5/Al and I 2O 5/Al/ Teflon) were hand mixed and packed to a tap density of about 32 percent. Data provided by a Cordon 114 high speed framing camera and a Photon Doppler Velocimetry instrument provided exit gas expansion, core particle and cylinder wall velocities. Analysis indicates that the case expansion velocity differs according to the core formulation and behaved similar to the baseline high explosive core with the exit gas of the reactive materials producing comparable velocities. Results from CTH hydrocode used to model the test item compares favorably to the experimental results. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.