Detonation-generated plasmas

In this article:

1.Photographic sequences at the rate of a million exposures a second of the brilliantly luminous ,highly
ionized gas clouds or detonation-generated plasma made from free surfaces of detonating explosives,
showing compressional ,extrusion and expansion effect are presented.

2.Means of separating and differentiating shock waves and plasmas in detonation of condensed
explosives are illustrated.

3.Particular metastable character of plasmas illustrated by some examples of plasma explosions.

4.Measurments of the Velocity Conductivity Density relations in the plasmas and their comparison with
metals are presented.

Investigations have shown that the region in detonation of highest ionization and electrical conduction
is the chemical reaction zone. Before these investigations these highly luminous gas clouds were
thought to be simply shock waves .recently these highly luminous gas clouds are found not to be shock
waves but dilute plasmas in which the valence electrons were removed from the atoms by ionization.

The dilute d.g plasmas are important because they bring out the deficiencies of current theories of
ionization of high-density gases and on the other hand the electrons and ions in them are apparently
correlated much like they are in metals. in other words, the d.g plasmas involve the promotion of the
valence electrons from localized states in atoms to collective electron states in which they move freely
,but at negative potential energy throughout the plasma to give it appreciable cohesion.

2. Differentiating shock waves and plasmas in detonation of condensed explosives

Experimental

 For 3 framing camera sequences they used a high explosive flashbomb for auxiliary lighting in
order to show up non-luminous shocks and their relations to the luminous plasma. and a streak-
camera record of a shock separating from a decaying plasma was also obtained by use of the
self-luminosity of the plasma.
 Using each in an experiment as plasma generator:

a) 50/50 Pentolite

b) 50/50 Amato (AN/TNT)

c) 94/6 AN/Fuel oil blasting agent

d) Granular RDX

e) Granular Tertyl
First experiment:

External detonation-generated plasmas

Plasma generator:D-13

The liquid was detonated in a beaker, the explosive being detonated through the glass bottom of the
beaker by cast composition B.

Results: the complete absence of luminosity outside the glass surface in the detonation of D-13 and
other high explosives in a thin glass container before the emergence of the detonation wave is evidence
that this luminous zone is not a shock wave.

Second Experiment:

Extrusion of detonation-generated plasmas

Plasma generator: D-13

Liquid D-13 was detonated in the same way through the bottom of the flask by a cast composition B
charge.D-13 was detonated in an Erlenmeyer flask connected to a 1.2 cm diameter glass tube through a
rubber stopper.

Results: first an inverted V zone above the plasma appeared which was caused by reflexion of the
plasma off the side walls of Erlenmeyer flask. then the plasma was well defined both at its front and rear
surface and its about 4 cm width. then the plasma struck the rubber stopper and it emerged from the
top of stopper. in next stage the plasma was extruded off up to 1.2 cm glass tubing. so this extrusion
serves to differentiate it from shockwave.

4. Velocity Conductivity Density relations in the plasmas

The plasma has a characteristic density and when it is compressed to a higher density and released it
expands beyond its equilibrium density where it explodes. this is because the stability falls off rapidly as
the density is deceased.

Velocity relations in Erlenmeyer flask: velocity was constant for the plasma in the beaker but the plasma
underwent slow decleration outside the beaker and it increased while plasma was in the flask but
remained constant in the 1.2 cm tubing.it decreased rapidly upon expanding out at the end of tubing.

Density relations: plasma density remained constant in the beaker but increased in the 1.2 cm tubing.

Conductivity relations: relative conductivity in D-13 increased roughly 3 times as fast as the density

These results seem to confirm that d.g plasmas are quasi-metallic in character.