Cylinder test of emulsion explosives: possibilities of detonation pressure estimation

Abstract

Cylinder tests are widely used to characterize the behavior of detonation products. The main output of the cylinder test is the equation of state (EOS) of the detonation products. The JWL EOS is frequently used because of its simplicity and its implementation in various hydrocodes. To describe the explosive for the purposes of JWL calculation, one needs to know its density, detonation velocity and detonation pressure apart from the velocity history of the outer cylinder wall. The measurement of detonation pressure is difficult, mainly for the cases of explosives with a long reaction zone. Four methods of detonation pressure estimation were therefore selected from the literature. The four resulting values of detonation pressure were taken as the input for the JWL calculation procedure, to obtain four sets of JWL parameters. Every set of the JWL parameters was used to simulate the wall motion during cylinder test using LS-DYNA hydrocode. All the simulated wall velocities are compared to the experimental ones for two samples of emulsion explosives. Based on this comparison, the usability of individual methods for the detonation pressure estimation is briefly discussed and evaluated.