CALCULATEDSHOCKPRXSSURES IN THE AQUARIUMTEST*

A new method of analysis has been developed for determination of shock pressures in aquarium tests on commercial explosives. This test coneists of photographing the expanding cylindrical tube wall (which contains the detonation products) and the shockwave in water surrounding the explosive charge. By making a least-squares fit to the shock-front data, it is possible to determine the peak shock-front pressure. as s function of distance from the cylinder wall. This has been done for 10-cm and 20-cm-diam ANFO (ammonium nitrate~ fuel oil) and aluminized ANFO (7.5 wt % Al) aquarium test data.:NTZOIXICTION The aquarium test of explosive performance consists of optical measurement of detonation velocity, shock-wave position, and expan-sion rate of the pipe containing the test product. These experi-ments have been descxibed in a report by Craig, et al. 1 The expan-sion of the tube wall &ivee information on the equation of state of the detonation products, and this has been used to good advantag