Monday  |  Executive CD  |  04:40 PM–05:00 PM

#19767, The Ultimate Strength of Plastic Bonded Explosives under Uniaxial Stress Compression at Strain-rates Beyond 1000 /s*

Plastic bonded explosives (PBX) experience a range of thermomechanical conditions during transportation, processing, and deployment. These conditions include thermal cycling and dynamic strain-rates. Therefore, the mechanical characterization of PBXs under a range of strain-rates is essential for assessing the integrity of components throughout their lifetime. Historically, PBX materials have been characterized under strain-rates of (0.00001–0.01/s) with load frames, and limited dynamic strain-rates of around 1000/s with full-scale Kolsky bars, leaving a limitation in the data at strain-rates beyond 1,000/s and below shock loading. To address this, we have performed miniature Kolsky bar experiments to characterize the response of several PBX materials (e.g., PBX 9501, 9502) at strain-rates of up to 10,000/s. The results from these experiments show an enhanced rate-sensitivity of the strength at high strain-rates for all the materials tested. The transition in the failure strength from moderate-to-enhanced rate-sensitivity and potential mechanisms for this phenomenon will be discussed.

Bryan Zuanetti   Los Alamos National Laboratory
Cynthia Bolme   Los Alamos National Laboratory
Claudine Armenta   Los Alamos National Laboratory
Erik Vettergren   Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kyle Ramos   Los Alamos National Laboratory