The Effects of Configuration and Confinement on Booster Characteristics
Abstract
The effect was examined of certain changes in size, shape, and confinement on the effectiveness of tetryl boosters. Effectiveness was judged in two ways: by the booster's approximation to a plane-wave generator and by its initiating strength. Consequently the measurements made were of non-planarity (radius of curvature) of the detonation front emerging from the booster and of the shock velocity vs distance curves of the hydrodynamic disturbance it caused in Plexiglas. The changes made in confinement and shape of two-inch diam boosters caused no significant change in either performance property. Changes in booster length, however, had a marked effect. Booster effectiveness increases with increasing length and is still increasing at length to diameter ratio, of 4, contrary to literature statements that curvature of the detonation front is constant at length to diameter ratio, < or = 3 and that booster strength becomes constant at length to diameter ratio, < or = 1.5. The validity of using truncated cones in place of cylindrical boosters in large-scale field tests of detonability was confirmed. The variation of 50% gap thickness with booster length (and corresponding invariance of critical initiating pressure), for a given test material, was quantitatively measured.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 13, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0464450
Entities
People
- A. R. Clairmont
- Irving Jaffe
Organizations
- Naval Ordnance Laboratory