Short Pulse Planar Impacts - Initiation Data, Extended Run Distances, and Pulse Attenuation

Thin impactor plates were utilized to produce short-duration planar impacts on a generic RDX-based explosive.  In some cases, the explosive was a small solid pellet, resulting in go/no-no initiation data, and in other cases the explosive was a large disc containing embedded particle velocity tracking gauges to additionally determine shock-to-detonation run distance.  The results show excellent agreement with complementary data on pellet initiation, and substantially extend the data to lower pressures and longer pulse durations.  With the embedded gauges, extended run distances were observed as the ignition threshold was approached.  Based on these experiments, a simple linkage between the pop-plot and the initiation curve is proposed.  The linkage, based on a simple approximation of input pulse attenuation, provides an explanation for previous time-scaling observations between the pop-plot and the initiation curve and provides an estimation of the critical input pulse duration in the absence of initiation data.  This critical pulse duration serves as a scaling factor to allow a dimensionless relationship between input pulse duration and extended run distance.