Reaction of a real explosion chamber to internal pulsed loading

Results are given for strain measurements of an actual explosion chamber intended for explosive hardening of railway points with an explosive charge weight up to 20 kg. It is shown that with an increase in explosive weight within the working range average stresses increase linearly. A special point of the construction is the pole of the chamber bottom. Use of a plane stressed state model for treating measured results leads to an increase in maximum stresses by 10–30%. Frequencies of the main modes of the construction at 84–1040 Hz are determined by spectral analysis of the deformation profiles. The damping decrement of the main harmonics is $\sim$5–30%.