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Compression Strengthening of Plastic Bonded Explosives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Paul D. Peterson ,
Deanne J. Idar  and
John S. Gardner
Paul D. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602.
Deanne J. Idar
Affiliation:
MS 920, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545.
John S. Gardner
Affiliation:
Department of Botany and Range Science,, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT84602.
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Extract

A recent study concluded that the most potentially dangerous scenarios for accidental detonation of a nuclear weapon were those involving weak thermal or mechanical shocks. For this reason, more data are needed to understand the material behavior of nuclear constituents under low strain rate scenarios.

One of the components of many of these types of weapons is known as Plastic Bonded eXplosives (PBX). PBX is a paniculate composite material made of a hard phase explosive carried in a soft phase polymer binder. Recent work has showed that the stiffness of PBX increased under low rate compressive loading. This behavior was attributed to the shape of the test samples and cross-linking within the elastomer binder. Another theory proposed that the changing compressive properties could be attributed to the hard phase particles migrating together during material flow.

Funk et al. demonstrated an inert material mock of PBX 9501, with the hard phase explosive replaced by granular sugar, also showed the same phenomena of compressive hardening.

Type
Low Voltage SEM Imaging and Analysis for the Biological and Materials Sciences
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 3 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '97, Microscopy Society of America 55th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 31st Annual Meeting, Histochemical Society 48th Annual Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, August 10-14, 1997 , August 1997 , pp. 1249 - 1250
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1997

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References

1Bdzil, J. B. and Son, S. F., “Engineering Models of Deflagration to Detonation Transition,” Los Alamos National Laboratory Report LA-12794-MS(1995).10.2172/95534Google Scholar
2Dowling, N. E., Mechanical Behavior of Materials, New Jersey:Prentice Hall (1993)75,174–175.Google Scholar
3Idar, D. J. and Mace, J., “Non-shock Initiation Thresholds of Energetic Materials,” Tech. Coord. Group For Energetic Materials Seventeenth Semi-annual Review, Los Alamos National Laboratory(1996).Google Scholar
4Funk, D. J. et al., Proc. of the Amer. Phys. Soc. Top. Conf. on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter (1995).Google Scholar