Fragmentation from Detonations and Less Violent Munition Responses

Abstract

An increasing number of munitions now show less violent responses than detonation in cook off or impact scenarios. The detonation of a warhead typically leads to well reproducible fragmentation effects. Deflagrations and explosions may still rupture the munition casing, but fragmentation is typically limited to just a few large fragments with a relatively low velocity. Fragmentation modeling has evolved significantly with increasingly realistic predictions, even for less violent explosions and deflagrations. Although deflagrating warheads produce only a few fragments, these fragments may reach large distances. Estimates of deflagrating warhead fragment trajectories can be done using platelike fragments. Conventional safety distances are not well suited for this situation. For illustration purposes a simple model of Individual and Group Risk was applied to a case study comparing detonating and deflagrating warheads.