Dynamic Shearing Resistance of Constituents of an Active Material Simulant.*

Pressure-shear plate impact (PSPI) experiments have been conducted to provide an experimental foundation for developing constitutive models for the mechanical response of polymer-bonded sucrose (PBS) simulants of polymer-bonded explosives (PBXs). PSPI experiments on HTPB, an elastomer commonly used as a binder in PBXs, show a shearing resistance of 470 MPa at a pressure of 9.1 GPa and a shearing rate of 0.4x10$^{\mathrm{6}}$ s$^{\mathrm{-1}}$. At similar pressures and shearing rates, PSPI experiments on sucrose- a mechanical simulant for energetic crystals-show a shearing resistance of 510 MPa followed by pronounced strain softening. Preliminary modeling of the response has been done using a quasi-linear viscoelasticity model for HTPB.