An alternative method for the measurement of the mechanical impulse of a vertically directed blast.
An alternative method for the measurement of the total mechanical impulse of a vertically directed blast due to an explosive charge is presented. The method differs from apparatus that employ a vertically displaced mass (similar in principle to the ballistic pendulum) in that a relatively compact spring-damper system is employed to constrain the movement of the mass. The mechanical impulse is determined by integrating, with respect to time, the net force applied to the spring-damper system. The details of an explosive impulse measuring instrument rated to 12 kN s are presented.
Vertical impulse measurements of mines buried in saturated sand
The ultimate aim of our overall task, of which the effort described in this paper is a part, is to be able to model the impulsive output of buried charges and the response of targets of interest. It is not practical or cost-effective to determine the response of all targets of interest to buried charges of all sizes by testing them. In order to have confidence in our models, however, they must be validated by a modest number of tests. A critical element in modelling the response of a target is the ability to model the loading function. The load a buried charge applies to a target above it when the charge detonates can be characterized in terms of the vertical impulse. The vertical impulse is a function of the size of the charge, its depth of burial, and the properties of the soil in which it is buried. The primary objective of the effort described in this paper is to determine the load a known charge places on a non-responding target so the data can be used to validate our models. For model validation, a ...
Explosive impulse on plates
This paper describes a series of very small scale model tests that were conducted in support of a full scale test program conducted by the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen, Maryland for the US Navy to investigate the impulse delivered to a military vehicle by a buried land mine. The full scale tests were conducted in July of 2004 and investigated the effect of various parameters on the impulse delivered. The vehicle was represented by a steel plate and depth of burial, standoff distance, and explosive size (up to 10 pounds of TNT) were changed in the seven tests conducted for the Navy. The full scale tests were conducted in saturated sand. The tests described in this paper used a maximum charge size of 3.3 gm of RDX and PETN. Each of the tests conducted for the Navy were simulated by the small scale tests and a prediction of the impulse that would be measured for each of the tests was made. The small scale tests (as well as the full scale tests results) were also used by the developers of various nume...