Dynamic fragmentation of powders in spherical geometry

Experimental evidence from a wide range of sources shows that the expanding cloud of explosively disseminated material comprises of “particles” or fragments which have different dimensions from those associated with the original material. Photographic evidence shows jets or fingers behind these expanding fragments. Powders and liquids have often been used to surround explosives to act as blast mitigants; this is the main driver for our research. Other examples of areas where these features are observed include fuel air explosives and enhanced blast explosives as well as quasi-static pressure mitigation systems. In this paper, we consider the processes occurring when an explosive interacts with a surrounding layer of powder in spherical geometry. Results from explosive experiments designed to investigate the effects of powder grain size and powder fill-to-burster charge mass ratio ( F / B ) are presented and compared with results from numerical modelling to explore what determines the primary fragment size distribution resulting from explosive dissemination of a layer of material and when this process begins. The evidence clearly shows that the process starts during the first wave transit period of the powder material and, despite the surrounding material initially being a loose powder, shows the characteristics of a brittle fracture mechanism. Later time video evidence shows the same number of jets or fingers as are identified by X-rays of the early, primary fragmentation process. The number of fragments is only a very weak function of the initial grain size of the powder.