A viscoplastic model of expanding cylindrical shells subject to internal explosive detonations

Thin cylindrical shells subjected to internal explosive detonations expand outwardly at strain-rates on the order 10{sup 4} s{sup {minus}1}. At approximately 150% strain, multiple plastic instabilities appear on the surface of these shells in a quasi-periodic pattern. These instabilities continue to develop into bands of localized shear and eventually form cracks that progress in a way that causes the shell to break into fragments. The entire process takes less than 100 microseconds from detonation to complete fragmentation. Modeling this high strain-rate expansion and generation of instabilities prior to fragmentation is the primary focus of this paper. Applications for this research include hypervelocity accelerators, flux compression generators, and explosive containment vessels for terrorist threats and power plants