Numerical and experimental investigation into plane charge explosion technique

Plane charge explosion technique (PCET) is one of the major techniques usually employed in large-scale tests of nuclear blast-resistant structures. Previous studies about the PCET paid more attention to the relationship between the pressure and the amount of charge consumed. Most of those studies were mainly based on experiments thus the general suggestions on the design of a certain PCET test were empirical or semi-empirical, and the details of the PCET configuration especially the charge arrangement in the shot cavity remain unclear. In this paper, the effects of the charge density, the interval between the charge strips, the distance of the charge from the structure and the mass of the overburden on the pressures in the cavity are analyzed numerically. A set of calculating formulae predicting the peak value and the duration of the pressure are presented based on numerical results, which show that both the interval of the charge strips and the height of the charge from the structures have little effect on the pressure, the duration and the impulse. The mass of the overburden has little effect on the pressure while the duration of the pressure prolongs with the increase of the mass of the overburden. Numerical results agree well with the test data.