Analysis of Fracture Behaviour of Exploded Metal Cylinders with Varied Charge

Abstract

Explosively driven fragmentation of ductile metals cylinders is a highly complex phenomenon. In this work, the fracture characteristics of exploded TA2 titanium alloy cylinder with varied charge were investigated numerically and experimentally. The results show that the fracture surfaces of fragments lie along planes of maximum shear stress for either a higher or a lower detonation pressure, but their mechanism is different. The finite element analysis demonstrated that the equivalent plastic strain in the middle of the wall is always larger than that of inner and outer wall for metal cylinder during the stage of shock wave driven period. For the high explosive pressures, the micro-cracks originated firstly in middle zone of wall during the stage of shock wave driven, and extend to the inner and outer wall in the direction of maximum shear stress. Explosives which generate lower detonation pressures, the shear fracture of cylinder originated from the inner wall and propagate to the outer wall in an angle of 45° or 135° to radial, the crack begin at the stage of free expansion. The simulated analysis of the process of deformation and fragmentation for exploded metal cylinder agree with the experimental results.