Fracture of solids by weak blasts

In this work, the results of different experiments on blasting rocks and model materials during combustion of powders, combustion and detonation of gas mixtures, and also in explosion of condensed HE charges in inert shells are generalized. Mechanisms of crack incipiency and conditions of crack propagation were determined and factors responsible for the increase in number of cracks with increasing load rate of chamber walls were elucidated. It is noted that the shape of initial cracks and the height of the loading zone of a cylindrical cavity have an effect on the fracture pattern. The kinetics of cracks in camouflet gas combustion is estimated. Attention is paid to the possibility of peripheral destruction of the crack edges in the intracrack gas detonation. Critical fracture surfaces are obtained for radial and disk-shaped cracks under quasistatic and dynamic loading of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).