Comparison of Post-Ignition Violence and Simulation of the Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition in the RCISME Test. PART 1: Experimental

The Revised Center Ignited Spherical Mass Explosion (RCISME) test was developed to quantitatively rank compositions relative to one another on the basis of post-ignition violence. We report results from 12 steel-confined, thermally-ignited experiments with the HMX-based compositions PBXN-5 and PBX 9501. PBXN-5 tests exhibited near-detonation levels of violence with internal vessel pressure of 2.0 -- 2.5 GPa and final fragment velocities exceeding 1.5 km/s, while the PBX 9501 tests exhibited low violence with internal vessel pressure 40 -- 50 MPa producing fragment velocities ~100 m/s. The RCISME test successfully discriminated explosive violence between PBXN-5 and PBX 9501 and demonstrates promise as a ranking tool to establish the relative safety merit of explosive compositions. Furthermore, the results from this test series are being utilized to inform deflagration-to-detonation transition(DDT) modeling efforts with the goal of developing predictive capability and a deeper understanding of this complex phenomena.

This abstract has been designated LA-UR-25-20116