Abstract
Exploding bridgewire detonators are an industry standard technology used for over 75 years and valued for their precise timing and safety characteristics. Despite widespread use, their functional mechanism remains controversial with both shock and non-shock mechanisms attributed. In this work, we reexamine the bridgewire detonator function with a suite of modern diagnostics and compare these observations with the existing literature. Traditional detonator observations consisted of voltage applied to the bridgewire and time dependent current, integral response measurements such as case motion, and more recently Schlieren imaging of the detonator surface. In this work, we add visible light emission, x-ray transmission, proton radiography, and temperature measurements during detonator function in addition to voltage, current, and function times. The addition of in situ observations of light emission, temperature, and density gives us new insight into the mechanisms of explosive bridgewire detonator function. We see a distinct separation in time, location, symmetry, and velocity of bridgewire output and detonation onset. During the time between bridgewire burst and the initiation of detonation, we observe a temperature ramp in the input pellet. In this paper, we present the suite of measurements and comparisons with the literature on integral response measurements.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 21288 |
Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
Volume | 128 |
Issue number | 21 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 7 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This research was supported by Science Campaign 2, the Joint Munitions Program, and the Surety Program administered by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. We wish to acknowledge the support of the entire pRad team and David Phillips from MSTS for help with visible imaging at the pRad facility.