PBX 9501 high explosive violent response/low amplitude insult project: Phase I

Preliminary modeling and experimental analyses of the violent reaction threshold of semi-heavily confined PBX 9501 to low velocity impact have been completed. Experimental threshold measurements were obtained with ten tests using a spigot gun design to launch a hemispherical projectile at the high explosive contained in stainless steel. Powder curves were determined for several gun barrel designs, powders, and projectile materials and have proven to be very reproducible over the range of 75 to 325 ft/s. A threshold velocity of approximately 246 ft/s for violent reaction of the PBX 9501 was determined with experimental gauge and switch measurements and the remaining physical test evidence. Preliminary analyses of the PBX 9501 samples retrieved from both unreacted and partially reacted targets have been completed. Core samples were obtained from the unreacted targets and submitted for density determinations. The subsequent analysis supports the concept that the PBX 9501 yields and fractures under the low velocity compression event to expand and fill the annular gap in the target design. Samples of PBX 9501 from the partially reacted targets were examined with scanning electron microscope and light microscope techniques. Increased evidence of mechanical twinning effects are noted in the HMX crystals from the partially reacted targets. Finite element calculations using DYNA213, with a modified ORION post processor, without reaction or chemistry models, were used to support the design of targets, to compare predictive analyses with experimental measurements, and to evaluate a proposed ignition criterion in a power law form for threshold to reaction with dependence on pressure, maximum shear strain rate, and time variables. The calculations show good agreement with the physical dent and deformation data from the remaining target evidence; however, they do not match the experimental pressure gauge measurements well