Characterization, modeling and simulation of the impact damage for polymer bonded explosives

The impact damage behavior of polymer bonded explosives (PBXs) is critical to the safety of explosive systems. In this work, two different low velocity impact experiments were designed to study this behavior. In multi-axial loading experiments, the loading styles were deliberately designed for easier specimen recycling, avoiding secondary damage to samples. The damage mechanisms and the corresponding fracture modes of PBX under different impact loadings were analyzed. A damage constitutive model with viscoelastic response and statistical fracture for PBX was developed. The model was implemented in ABAQUS to predict the damage responses of PBX under impact loadings. Computational results were verified by the experiments.