A Simple 3D Printed Plane Wave Explosive Lens Based on Fritz Parameters

The development of additive manufacturing (3D printing) has opened up avenues previously unexplored due to prohibitive cost and/or complexity. Printing of inert parts for use in shock property characterization has reached a new level by allowing high resolution (10's of micron) wave shapers to be designed and employed at varying dimensions; the ability to save time on HE machining, casting, and cost of HE is undeniable. Herein, we report the design of a polyjet-printed wave shaper paired with a cast-cure HE formulation to generate a planar output shock; guided by CTH simulations, the design was iterated to increase planarity. Lens fabrication followed guidelines by J. Fritz, using PMMA Hugoniot data as a substitute for the chemically similar 3D printed acrylates. Front curvature characterization of these minimal explosive mass, small diameter (2.54 cm) charges showed reliable planarity below 100 ns and optimized to \textasciitilde 28 ns. Following this characterization, the plane wave generators were used to launch flyers at varying materials to investigate shock and particle velocities and chemical reactions. In this fashion, Us-up curves were created and aided follow-on gas-gun experiments. LA-UR-21802