Warhead design engineers and material scientists require mechanical property information under high deformation rates of loading on a wide variety of materials that have military significance.  Over the past decade, a new class of materials has begun to receive attention because it affects the performance of most all warhead designs.  This new class is called “particulate materials” and includes a diverse collection of materials such as sand, explosive grains and potting materials.  One technique used to probe the behavior of such materials is to fill a large “box” with sand and fire a hemispherical-nosed projectile into it.  The hemispherical nose provides a spectrum of loading conditions and the rapid projectile deceleration provides a velocity spectrum.  During such events, the projectile disturbs and crushes the sand.  It has been noted that the disturbed/crushed state of the sand correlates with the conditions that affected it.  However, there is no good technique for extracting sand samples making so many measurements not very definitive or useful.  The Damage Mechanisms Branch has a requirement to develop a new technique for extracting sand samples from the target.

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