Determination of detonation velocity and plate dent properties of PBXV-11 with 30 WT.% aluminium

Studied composition PBXW-11with 30wt.% aluminium class 7 powder is a Norwegian produced explosive equal to the American PBXIH-18 composition. By slightly modification of the aluminium content the studied composition will also be equal to Chemring Nobel’s DPX-5 composition. To determine the detonation velocity for PBXW-11 with 30wt.% aluminium class 7 powder pellets with 25.5 mm diameter have been pressed to a density of 97.4 % of TMD. 11 pellets were glued together to charges of approximately 430 mm in length and a distance between the start and stop sensors of 314 mm. The experimentally determined detonation velocity was found to be 8273 m/s, which is approximately 300 m/s higher than theoretically calculated by use of Cheetah 2.0 code. Detonation pressure determined by use of Plate Dent test gave an average pressure of 255 kbar. This result is in accordance with theoretically calculated pressure obtained by use of the Cheetah 2.0 code.