How do directional explosives work?

Directional Roof-Cutting Mechanism of SCHB The detonation of the explosive material in water produces a high-speed water jet in the blast hole, which in turn impinges a directional impact in the direction of the shaped charge holes. This process is like the high-pressure water-jet rock breaking.

What is a shaped explosive?

A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive’s energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, initiating nuclear weapons, penetrating armor, or perforating wells in the oil and gas industry.

What are shaped charges made of?

The shaped charge, principally the hand-fired rocket, is another highly publicized product introduced during World War II. A shaped charge normally consists of a cone made of metal or glass surrounded by a high-strength, high-density explosive and means to obtain the proper standoff,…

What does a shaped charge look like?

25.3. A shaped charge is usually a conical shape, as shown in Fig. 25.3. The explosive charge is often contained in a plastic tube whose upper part looks like a cylinder and whose lower part ends at a cone of metallic liner. The liner material may be steel, aluminum, copper, and other metallic materials.

How do linear shaped charges work?

How do shaped charges work? In Linear Shaped Charges, the LSC or FLSC explosive material generates a detonation high pressure wave traveling through its length. The focusing of the high-pressure wave collapses the metal sheath forming a high velocity metallic jet.

What is a linear shaped charge?

Linear Shaped Charge (LSC) is used to cut various types of metal in separation systems, from launch vehicles to missiles, in space, military and underwater applications. Linear Shaped Charge is a continuous explosive core enclosed in a seamless metal sheath, formed into an appropriate shape to sever the target.

What is the heat of explosion?

When an explosive is initiated either to burning or detonation, its energy is released in the form of heat. The liberation of heat under adiabatic conditions is called the heat of explosion, denoted by the letter Q.

When was the shaped-charge explosive invented?

It was during the testing of this idea that, on February 4, 1938, Thomanek conceived the shaped-charge explosive (or Hohlladungs-Auskleidungseffekt (hollow-charge liner effect)). (It was Gustav Adolf Thomer who in 1938 first visualized, by flash radiography, the metallic jet produced by a shaped-charge explosion.)

What is the energy released when an explosive is ignited?

When an explosive is initiated either to burning or detonation, its energy is released in the form of heat.

What happens when an explosive is fired from a hollow object?

If the hollow is properly shaped (usually conically), the enormous pressure generated by the detonation of the explosive drives the liner in the hollow cavity inward to collapse upon its central axis. The resulting collision forms and projects a high-velocity jet of metal particles forward along the axis.