Shock response of the commercial high explosive Detasheet

The mechanical and chemical response of the flexible commercial high explosive Detasheet^R is studied under controlled impact and plane-wave, high explosive loading. Results on nonreactive material behavior, sound speed, shock-initiation sensitivity and detonation pressure are presented. The material is found to respond in a viscous manner reminiscent of viscoelastic response of polymeric materials. Time-resolved pressure and pressure-rate measurements with PVDF piezoelectric polymer gauges are presented along with Manganin pressure and plate-dent test measurements of detonation pressure. Detonation pressures of 18GPa are indicated. Pressure measurements show initiation of reaction between 3 and 8 mm for an impact stress of 3.1 GPa. Plane wave loading wedge tests show run distances to detonation consistent with the pressure measurements, and with behavior like that of XTX8003 (80 % PETN/20 % Sylgard 182^R).This article was processed using Springer-Verlag T_EX Shock Waves macro package 1.0 and the AMS fonts, developed by the American Mathematical Society.