Numerical simulation of detonation propagation in inert metal particle explosive

The charge which is the mixture of explosive and dense inert metal particles is a kind of special heterogeneous explosive. The effect of the inert metal particles on the propagation and characteristic of the detonation is one of the most important problems in the research on these explosives. In this paper a model was established firstly for the estimation of the size of clearance among particles. The relationship between the size of clearance and the mass ratio of the explosive and metal particles was obtained based on the analytical model. The propagation of detonation in the case of different clearance sizes and mass ratios of metal particles was simulated by using finite element code AUTODYN. From the numerical simulation, the effect of the clearance size on the propagation of detonation wave was discussed, and the critical mass ratio between the explosive and inert metal was got. The analytical results are of importance to study the theory and experiment of dense inert metal explosives.