Air blast TNT equivalence factors of high explosive material PETN for bare charges

•A review of four different methods to derive TNT equivalence factors is given.•Formulae to calculate TNT equivalence factors of PETN are developed.•A single value can be used to convert the charge mass of PETN to TNT in the far field range.•Experiments confirms the applicability of TNT equivalence...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of hazardous materials 2019-09, Vol.377, p.152-162
Main Authors: Xiao, Weifang, Andrae, Matthias, Gebbeken, Norbert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Maximum impulse
Multi-Material Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian
Peak overpressure
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate
TNT equivalence
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Summary:•A review of four different methods to derive TNT equivalence factors is given.•Formulae to calculate TNT equivalence factors of PETN are developed.•A single value can be used to convert the charge mass of PETN to TNT in the far field range.•Experiments confirms the applicability of TNT equivalence concept in the far field.•TNT equivalence factor of PETN in the near field can be as large as 2.6 times the one in the far field. The concept of TNT equivalence is often invoked to predict the blast parameters generated from explosions, in which high explosives other than Trinitrotoluene (TNT) are used. This paper discusses the TNT equivalence concept for bare charges using Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). At first, a review of different methods to derive TNT equivalence factors is given. After that, numerical simulations are conducted in order to obtain overpressure and impulse data, which is fitted by using the curve-fitting method. Meanwhile, the equations representing the fitted curves of peak overpressures and maximum impulses are employed to calculate the TNT equivalence factors for overpressure and impulse, respectively. Fitting these data, formulae are developed to calculate the TNT equivalence factors of PETN for overpressure and impulse. It is found that a single value, i.e. 1.258 for overpressure and 1.272 for impulse, can be used to convert the charge mass of PETN to TNT in the far field. This statement is confirmed by a series of free field air blast measurements. However, the TNT equivalence factors of PETN vary significantly in the near field. The value can be as large as 2.6 times the one in the far field.
ISSN:0304-3894
1873-3336
DOI:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.05.078