Fragmentation of Cast Iron Blocks by a Confined Explosive Charge: A new performance evaluation test for commercial explosives
✍ Scribed by P. S. Rao; V. Krishna Mohan; V. C. Jyothi Bhasu; A. S. Kumar
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1994
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 628 KB
- Volume
- 19
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0721-3115
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
This paper describes a new method to assess the performance of small diameter explosives under laboratory conditions. While conventional strength tests often do not correctly reflect the performance characteristics of such explosives, model tests using rocks are not convenient due to constraints imposed by the size of the test block. Cast iron being a brittle material, fractures like rock and also its mechanical properties make it a suitable material for simulating rock under laboratory conditions. Tests have been carried out with different explosives in a cylindrical block of cast iron having a 27‐mm diameter central hole of a certain depth. Mean fragment size (X50) has been used as the criterion to rank different explosives with respect to their strength. Using fracture surface energy of cast iron and detonation properties of the explosives tested, the maximum fragment size could be predicted on the basis of an energy balance model. The predicted maximum fragment sizes are in fair agreement with the experimentally obtained ones. While the limitations of the proposed test are pointed out, it appears that cast iron block fragmentation could serve as an useful technique for evaluating the strength of commercial explosives.