Mid-explosion recovery of an intermediate phase of a cylindrical metal shell

To understand the complex dynamic response of cylindrical metal shells under high-strain-rate loading, a mid-explosion recovery device is designed to recover cylindrical shells at an intermediary phase, chosen in this study to be the phase wherein cracks penetrate through the entire casing wall thickness. The surface dynamic processes of the expansion, fracture propagation, and rupture of a 40CrMnSiB steel cylindrical shell are measured with a high-speed framing camera for determining the appropriate inner diameter of the mid-explosion recovery device. The numerical simulation software Autodyn-3D is used to predict the influence of the device wall thickness and the maximum radial deformation of the device inner wall upon the outer fracture diameter of the casing. The casing at the desired phase is recovered by the device, and the outer diameter of the shell is found to increase by 1.77 times, while the radial deformation of the device is 5 mm. The crack distributions, the distance between the adjacent penetrating shear cracks, and the number of circumferential divisions are found to vary along the axis of the cylindrical casing.