BRITTE REACTION OF A HIGH-TEMPERATURE ION MELT

An experimental study on explosive interaction between transparent mel t (T = 1120 K) and entrapped water (T = 300 K) has been performed. Int ense explosions occurred, resulting from catastrophic fragmentation of the melt and increasing heat transfer to the water in a cascading pro cess. In earlier experiments a quasi-isochoric brittle reaction of the melt was identified to be the major explosion mechanism. Using a tran sparent melt, this brittle reaction could directly be observed by high -speed cinematography. The pictures revealed two fragmentation mechani sms: a) formation of leading cracks (mm to cm scale) due to excess wat er pressure, and b) slower mu m scaled melt fragmentation induced by s train build-up in the melt during rapid cooling.