Experimental simulation of microinteractions in large scale explosions Original Research Article

The fragmentation behavior of molten steel drops forced to explode in sustained pressure fields is investigated. The effect of pressure amplitude, melt superheat, and coolant velocity is considered. The data include external images from high-speed movies, internal structures from simultaneously obtained flash X-ray radiographs, and solidified debris size distributions and morphology from scanning electron micrographs. The results demonstrate the importance of all three parameters studied on both the rates and extent of the interaction/fragmentation.