EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF TNT EQUIVALENCE TO PE4 CHARGES USING A BLAST TEST DEVICE

A considerable amount of scientific effort has been expended over many decades on developing means of predicting the loading generated when a blast wave impact structures. The energetic output and the blast load associated with the detonation of a mass of high explosive will differ depending on the chemical composition of the explosive itself. It is therefore convenient to equate the effects of an explosive to TNT. The “TNT equivalent (TNTeq) ratio” refers to the mass ratio of the explosive in question that will produced equal peak overpressure to that equivalent mass of TNT. There is vast range of equivalency ratios for PE4 in the literature. However, there appears to be no research that determines effect of TNT equivalency of spherical shape of PE4 charge detonated on rigid ground surface This paper presents experimental measurements of reflected pressure-time histories from a series of well-controlled small scale blast tests. An investigation of TNT equivalent ratio of spherical PE4 charge detonation on rigid ground was performed using the Blast Test Device (BTD). Our results presented here clearly demonstrates that the TNTeq ratio of 1.37 is higher in the near field environment and TNTeq of 1.2 will be the best to produce blast wave by the hemispherical PE4 detonations on rigid surface. It is also better to compare the peak pressure rather that the injury caused by the pressure profile.