Shock initiation of hexanitrostilbene at ultra-high shock pressures and critical energy determination

Hexanitrostilbene (HNS) is a secondary explosive with attractive properties for detonator usage, including thermal stability, good safety properties and easy initiability. It is desirable to characterize the shock initiation of detonator explosives to enable optimization of system parameters. HNS is a suitable explosive for use in electrical and optical slapper detonators, where shock pressures generated by the flyer plates used can exceed 30 GPa. This extreme shock regime can be explored by initiating HNS with a variety of flyer thicknesses, from 3 to 25 microns at velocities of several km/s. Thresholds for optical and electrical slapper detonators were evaluated, and Photonic Doppler Velocimetery used to determine the flyer velocity at threshold. The flyer diameters are in excess of the critical diameter for HNS, allowing a one-dimensional treatment of the initiation. Calculated values for pressure and shock duration are used to evaluate the critical energy criteria P2τ. The James Criterion is used to analyse the initiation, with values of EC and ΣC being determined from experimental data, providing a predictive capability to model other configurations such as different flyer thicknesses and materials.