Splitting PMMA with Mini Cutting Explosives

In order to improve the present aviation ejection escape system, the application of explosion cutting technique to aviation escape system is proposed to weaken the strength of canopy before ejecting it. A series of mini cutting explosives are designed to investigate the process of splitting PMMA plate. The phenomenon of spallation in PMMA is observed. The effects of different parameters of mini cutting explosives on the cutting depth are obtained. Consequently the appropriate material of half-circular metal covers, explosive types and the ranges of charge quantities are determined. On the other hand, the cutting process of aviation PMMA plate by mini cutting explosives is simulated by means of nonlinear dynamic analysis code LS-DYNA. In finite element analysis,Arbitrary Lagrangian Euler (ALE) algorithm is used to depict the fluid property of high energy explosives. Continuous damage material model is used to simulate the complicate dynamic damage behavior of PMMA due to explosion shock waves. Only sliding contact option is defined to fulfill the fluid-structure interaction between explosives and PMMA plate by distributed parameter methods. Phenomenon of spallation observed in the experiment is presented in the simulation. The relationship between the penetration depth of PMMA plate and charge linear density obtained by numerical simulation agrees well with experimental result.