Modeling Shock Desensitization of Composition B Explosive

The NOBEL multimaterial adaptive grid Eulerian hydrodynamic code was used to model a shaped charge jet formation, its interaction with a steel plate, and shock formation of a bow shock in front of the jet that shocks and desensitizes a cylinder of composition B explosive so that when the jet arrives it fails to initiate detonation. The jet passes through the composition B explosive cylinder, an air gap, and then initiates propagating detonation in a second composition B explosive cylinder that has not been desensitized by a preshock. The experimental arrangement was studied using X-ray radiography at the Material Research Laboratories in Melbourne, Australia.