A method for the determination of the viscoelastic relaxation function of reactive materials

Modern insensitive high explosives HE are heterogeneous materials consisting of a mixture of explosive grains within a polymeric binder matrix 1]. The mechanical material behaviour is strongly determined by this heterogeneous structure. The stiffness and strength comes mainly from the explosive grains whereas the softer polymeric binder is responsible for the viscoelastic behaviour. Depending on the mechanical loading regime different mechanisms are present and must be taken into account for the material modelling.