Shock Initiation of PBX‐9404 by electrically driven flyer plates

Abstract

AbstractThe shock initiation threshold of PBX‐9404 has been studied over the pressure range 3.1 GPa‐28 GPa with pulse lengths ranging from 0.007 μs‐0.63 μs. The short‐duration, high pressure pulses were produced by the impact of thin plastic flyer plates accelerated by electrically exploded metal foils. We performed the experiments on explosive pellets 25.4 mm in diameter with thicknesses of 6.0 mm, 10.1 mm and 19.1 mm. No dependence of the initiation threshold on pellet thickness was observed. The data are represented reasonably well by either the critical initiation energy or by the constant P2τ initiation criteria.