Low velocity impact experiments on the explosive LX-10 with modeling of reaction violence

A new gas gun capability designed for the velocity range of similar to 20-400 m/s was used to study the mechanisms of low-velocity impact ignition and reaction violence of explosive targets in safety studies. Hemispherical charges of the HMX-based explosive LX-10 (95% HMX, 5% Viton binder) assembled in a polycarbonate target ring were impacted by a 6.35 mm diameter hardened steel rod protruding from a projectile at velocities ranging from 36 to 374 m/s. Digital high-speed (Phantom v12) cameras were utilized to capture the times of first ignition and a Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) probe placed at the rear of the target was used to measure the free surface velocity histories of an aluminum foil on the LX-10 surface to quantify the resulting reaction violence. The Ignition and Growth reactive flow model for LX-10 was used to compare the relative violence of these reactions to the intentional detonation of an equivalent LX-10 charge. It was found that comparing the model results to that of the experiment using this impactor geometry within the tested velocity range, the reaction violence increased with velocity from 45-374 m/s and only a small fraction of material appears to react during the impact.