1. Evolution of explosively driven flash coatings.
- Author
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Montoya, Gabriel A., Dean, Joshua, Lawrence, Joseph R., Salyer, Terry R., and Son, Steven F.
- Subjects
SURFACE coatings ,IMAGE intensifiers ,MAGNESIUM oxide ,EXPLOSIVES ,CIGARETTES ,FURAZANS - Abstract
Highspeed Imaging has always been an integral part of explosives research, with detonation velocities regularly reaching speeds greater than 6 km/s and events of interest lasting on the order of ns. Despite the high energy release of explosives during detonation, light production is a common issue when imaging at high rates. To combat this, many techniques have been developed to increase light production including the use of other explosives, external flashes, image intensifiers, and flash coatings. Of these techniques, flash coatings are the simplest to field, relatively cheap, and have been widely adopted. The technique only consists of materials being applied to the surface of the explosive/imaging plane. Despite this, minimal information is openly available on contrasting coating materials and characteristics, which has led to many different materials being used including cigarette paper, fine sand, alumina (Al
2 O3 ), and magnesium oxide (MgO). Here, this work investigated alumina as a flash coating and characterized the effects of coating thickness and particle size on light production. It was found that particles below 45 µm produce the best results with uniform light, and a minimum thickness of 7 µm of the flash coating was needed for distinguishing between the leading shock and product gases. To isolate the influence of the high explosives (HE) only PBX 9501 was used. Simulations using the hydrodynamic code CTH, by Sandia National Labs, were performed to model the flash coatings and supply further insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2023
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