Airblast TNT equivalence for a range of commercial blasting explosives

Results are reported from a programme of work undertaken by the UK Health a nd Safety Executive to investigate the airblast produced by commercial sect or explosives having velocities of detonation (VoD) in the range 2000-8200 m s(-1). The data produced will be useful in evaluating the blast hazards o f such explosives in industrial circumstances and also as a means of assess ing post-accident damage. All of the solid explosive materials studied prod uced blast waves which ramped up into shock-wave form close to the point of initiation. The dependence of peak overpressure and positive phase impulse on scaled distance is presented and compared to that of TNT. The TNT equiv alence (TNTe) technique is shown to be applicable to solid phase explosives with a wide range of VoD, although the precise values of TNTe vary with di stance. Crown Copyright (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.