Shock to detonation transition of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) initially pressed to 1.65 g/cm3

A novel set of experiments and reactive flow modeling of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) is presented. Here, the specific phenomenon of shock to detonation transition is examined, where an initial, relatively weak shock is propagated into pressed PETN powder at 1.65 g/cm 3 and the subsequent buildup to detonation is observed experimentally. These experiments, in conjunction with reactant and products’ equations of state, are utilized for building reactive flow models.