Measurement and reactive burn modeling of the shock to detonation transition for the HMX based explosive LX-14

Gas-gun driven plate-impact techniques were used to study the shock to detonation transition in LX-14 (95.5 weight {\%} HMX, 4.5 weight {\%} estane binder). The transition was recorded using embedded electromagnetic particle velocity gauges. Initial shock pressures, $P$, ranged from 2.5 to 8 GPa and the resulting distances to detonation, $x_{D}$, were in the range 1.9 to 14 mm. Numerical simulations using the SURF reactive burn scheme coupled with a linear $U_{S} - u_{p}$ / Mie-Grueneisen equation of state for the reactant and a JWL equation of state for the products, match the experimental data well. Comparison of simulation with experiment as well as the ``best fit'' parameter set for the simulations is presented.