LAUSR

Abstract The Gurney method is widely used in the conceptual design stage of explosive fragmentation warheads employed in various weapons systems. This method states that the peak fragment velocity ( V 0 ) is a function of the Gurney velocity ( 2 E G ) and the charge-to-metal weight ratio ( C / M ). The current study is concerned with finding a practical approach for computing the Gurney velocity of pure and mixed high explosives which will eventually help warhead designers to select the best explosive to fulfill the needs of a particular mission. Using multiple regression analysis technique, a four-variable model was derived and used thereafter to estimate the Gurney velocity of aluminized and non-aluminized explosive formulations. The results show that the new model is particularly accurate in predicting the Gurney velocity of combined effects explosives, which are relatively a new class of high blast, high metal acceleration capability explosive compositions.