Question

In an experiment performed in the late 1990’s, a flyer plate impacted a slab of PBX 9502 at a speed fast enough to produce an overdriven detonation. The experiment was conducted with helium gas trapped between the flyer and the explosive. When the experiment was analyzed, it was discovered that a layer of the explosive at the surface that was impacted by the flyer did not detonate, but had instead was “dead.” What might have caused this to occur

Answer 1

By combining Hugoniot, Wescott-Stewart-Davis (WSD) model and schlieren imaging of a flyer plate launch, the ejection of hot helium gases and particles from the region surrounding the flyer plate launch and the burning of the ejected energetic material particles causes at a speed fast enough to produce an over-driven detonation.

Reference:

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc679203/m2/1/high_res_d/434330.pdf

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