Fracture behavior of explosively loaded spherical molded steel shells

Abstract

Experimental and numerical works are made to study the fracture of explosively loaded spherical molded steel shells. The first series of experiments included three sawdust recovery shots to save fragments for examination. In this series, detonation was initiated from the center of the sphere. Results of the experiments show that two types of fractures are observed in spherical shells: radial and shear as in cylindrical shells. Spall fracture is also observed in spherical shells. To assist understanding of the experimental results, a computer simulation of expanding shells is performed to provide information on the stress, strain, strain rate and position of each element of the shell wall as a function of time after detonation. For t=7.5 μs after detonation, triaxial non-uniform strain prevails in the middle of the thickness of the wall. The peak of the stress equals to 6.5 GPa and exceeds the spall strength of carbon steel. In the second series of experiments, spall fracture is suppressed by displacing the point of detonation initiation from the center to periphery of HE charge.