Investigation of shock wave effect on activation of a pressure-sensitive landmine fuse

The study investigated how shock wave parameters, specifically impulse and pressure amplitude, affect the fuze of a landmine.This research is driven by the need to develop an effective method for contactless gas detonation demining.In this method, detonating a gas mixture within demining device tubes produces shock waves with sufficient intensity to trigger a mine.Most fuzes, specifically pressure-acting, are produced from thermosetting plastics like Bakelite and are designed to activate under quasi-static loading.Therefore, it is essential to evaluate its behaviour when exposed to short-term pressure impulses generated by the shock waves from a contactless demining device.The investigation employed numerical modelling and experimental verification.A three-dimensional finite element model of the landmine fuze was developed using experimentally validated material properties and a Friedlander-type loading form.The simulations were conducted in the LS-DYNA environment.The results showed that the destructive effect of the shock wave is mainly driven by the pressure impulse, which needs to be above 40 Pa•s for activation to happen.Although pressure amplitude has a lesser effect, increasing it can improve the activation of a fuze.The ability of the developed contactless demining device to trigger the fuze of the tested mine type has been confirmed through experiments.While the pressure amplitude has a lesser impact than the pressure impulse, it has been established that increasing it also activates the fuze.The ability of the newly developed contactless demining device to activate the fuse of the mine of the type under study was experimentally proven.