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Science and Technology of Energetic Materials

Vol.70, No.3 (2009)

Letter

Attenuation of blast wave using biodegradable foam material around a spherical charge of composition C-4
Tomotaka Homae, Tei Saburi, Kunihiko Wakabayashi, Tomoharu Matsumura,
and Yoshio Nakayama
p.76-79

Abstract

The attenuation effect on a blast wave resulting from completely covering an explosive charge with biodegradable foam material (BFM) was studied. As the BFM does not have an electrostatic charge, it is considered to be safer than foam polystyrene small spheres (FPS), which were verified to be an effective barrier material in our previous study. A cylindrical polyetyrene bag made of thin polyetyrene film was filled with BFM. A spherical charge of composition C-4, weighing 50 g or 100 g, was detonated at the center of the bag. The diameter and height of the bag were identical, measuring 200 mm, 300 mm, or 400 mm. The blast pressure was measured at a scaled distance of 2m·kg-1/3to 6.5 m·kg-1/3. The attenuation effect of the BFM was slightly smaller than that of the FPS for the same barrier-material thickness, while the density of the BFM was half that of the FPS. The attenuation effect of the BFM on the explosive charges of 50 g and 100 g was described consistently using the scaled barrier-material thickness ; i.e., the thickness divided by the cubic root of the explosive weight.

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Keywords

blast wave, attenuation, biodegradable foam material.

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