Material properties testing using high explosives

The Defense Nuclear Agency has conducted several high explosive (HE) phenomenology tests in the past five years, using explosive weights at or below 1000 pounds, to improve the capability of computer codes to predict weapon effects. One of the interesting results of this series of tests is the major improvement in determining material properties of the concrete, soil, or sand in the testbed. This has permitted a more accurate definition of the equation-of-state (EOS) for the material in question, and thus, improved modeling capabilities over a broader range of weapon effects.