An Update on the Hedonist Experiment Series

The proton radiography facility (pRad) at LANL offers unique experimental capabilities, but precludes the usage of large quantities of high explosives. The HEDONIST series was designed to investigate multiple phenomena at pRad including the evolution of shocks through detonation products and overdriven states resulting from multiple shock interactions. We present the hydrocode analysis of a small-scale system (under 30g TNT equivalent) capable of reaching pressures in excess of 1 Mbar. This system utilizes a novel multipoint initiation system to produce four converging detonation waves which converge to produce strongly overdriven states in an acceptor charge. HEDONIST has been designed to present a low areal density to the pRad beam thereby providing ample signal-to-noise ratio to discern shock waves in sample cell materials from other shocks present. The two most recent HEDONIST pRad experiments made use of PBX 9501 and Octol acceptor charges respectively. The results from those experiments and comparisons to hydrocode simulations will be discussed.

LA-UR-22-22162