Effects of Strain Rate and Temperature on Compressive Properties of an Aluminized PBX

Weapons have to face some extremely abominable situations, such as high temperature, high pressure, shock loadings, etc. In such situations, the mechanical properties of the high explosive filled in weapons will decide the level of security of the whole system, making it necessary to get a deep understanding on the mechanical properties of these explosives. In this work, we tested the dynamic compressive properties of an aluminized polymer bonded explosive (PBX) at four temperatures (12, 29, 45 and 62 ℃) by using split Hopkinson pressure bars. Specimens were heated individually before fixed to the bars to get the target temperature. The strain rate was ranged from 250 s-1 to 1 200 s-1. The results show the failure compressive stress is strongly dependent on strain rates and temperatures, while the failure strain almost keeps constant. The failure stress increases obviously with the rise of strain rates and the decrease of temperatures. And a double-linear function is used to fit the compressive failure stress-strain rate temperature relationship. However, this relationship for dynamic compression may become invalid when the temperature is lower than the glass transition temperature.