Development of ammonium nitrate based explosives to optimize explosive properties and explosive welding parameters used during explosion cladding

Abstract

The ability to accurately measure and predict the velocity of explosively driven flyer plates has been a subject of significant work by the explosives community for some time. The majority of this work has focused on the use of high-energy, ideal explosives that are of interest for defense applications. Several attempts have been made to modify the experimental methods developed for these ideal explosives for use in testing low-energy, non-ideal explosive compounds (including industrially useful mixtures of ammonium nitrate, fuels, and additives) with varying degrees of success. The detonation properties of non-ideal explosives are difficult to measure precisely due to the effect of physical, environmental, and geometric factors on the detonation of these materials. The work presented in this document attempts to mitigate the variability inherent in measurements of non-ideal, ammonium nitrate-based explosives by performing testing using charge geometry similar to that used in the industrial process of explosion welding. A method to measure flyer plate velocity with optical high-speed imaging using commercially available equipment is described. Flyer plate velocity data from both experimental measurements and numerical modeling is presented. A new formula for predicting explosive energy based on the detonation velocity of an ammonium nitrate based explosive in a planar geometry is proposed and applied to a theoretical explosive cladding scenario.