Spallation studies on shock loaded uranium Los Alamos report LAUR-97-3169 Available to Purchase

Several spallation experiments have been performed on uranium using gas gun driven normal plate impacts with VISAR instrumentation and soft recovery. The shock pressures achieved were 81, 53, and 37 kbar. This paper will focus on modeling the free surface particle velocity trace U with of 300 ppm carbon using the 1 d characteristics code CHARADE. The spallation model involves the growth and coalescence of brittle cracks. Metallographical examination of recovered samples and details of the experimental apparatus are discussed in separate papers.