Quantitative High Speed Imaging for a Sympathetic Detonation Study

An experiment was performed which tested the sympathetic detonation of a plastic encased cylinder of high explosive (HE) charge by an identical neighbor placed \textasciitilde 6cm away. The two cylindrical charges consisted of a plane wave lens in a delrin case, driven by an RP-1 detonator. A high speed Shimadzu HPV-X camera was focused on the packages to record 128 images, backlit with a magnesium bulb. In this work, we developed a quantitative analysis technique for high speed video footage of HE drives to verify sympathetic detonation. We measure the position of the expanding cases and record this position as a function of time. In the experiment, we first performed three separate measurements of single experimental charges. Comparisons were made between: a single HE charge, an HE charge impacting on a ``dummy'' plastic charge, and an HE charge on an HE charge. The disassembly speeds of the ``dummy'' and the ``live'' charges were compared and exhibited sympathetic detonation. In this talk, the high speed images will be shown and the analysis technique demonstrated. LA-UR-19-21554