Initiation systems using secondary explosives

The paper reports the main results of the work on designing initiation systems and firing devices for industrial use, primarily in metal working, that was begun in 1961 at the Institute of Hydrodynamics and headed for a long time by Academician M. A. Lavrent’ev. Within the framework of this work, basic research on the initial stages of detonation transition was performed and the ablative mechanism of combustion of melting explosives, which, in particular, distinguishes them from smokeless powders, was revealed and studied. A dynamic initiation studies have been used to design industrial explosive devices for metal working and initiation systems for mechanized priming in hydroexplosive forming and synthesis of ultradisperse diamonds.