Proton Radiography results on PBX 9701 shock propagation over a wide temperature range

Recent proton radiography (pRad) experiments on Plastic Bonded Explosive (PBX) 9701 (DAAF and FK-800) were executed at three temperatures: -52^oC, Ambient, and +74^oC. The goal of the experimental series was to see whether dead zones existed in this material, and whether it showed any cold temperature effect on performance. High temperature experiments had never previously been fired on this material and the outcome was unknown. The experimenters had a pre-shot prediction from a recently developed Equation of State (EOS) that predicted no dead zones. As PBX 9701 is a candidate for Insensitive High Explosive (IHE) designation, temperature invariance would be very favorable to its future.



We will present the results seen in these three experiments. All three temperatures exhibited the same behavior and no dead zones nor a performance decrement was seen. This is an unparalleled result for an IHE material. Prad gave us 21 images, separated by 300ns, for each experiment. When compared, the wave shape, shock wave propagation and time of arrival were identical. The behavior cold, is easy to explain. The behavior hot is a little more difficult to explain as no previous data exists. Some hypotheses as to the results will be discussed.