Hollow RX-08HD cylindrical charges were loaded with boron and PTFE, in the
form of low-bulk density powders or powders dispersed in a rigid foam
matrix. Each charge was initiated by a Comp B booster at one end,
producing a detonation wave propagating down the length of the cylinder,
crushing the foam or bulk powder and collapsing the void spaces. The PdV
work done in crushing the material heated it to high temperatures,
expelling it in a high velocity fluid jet. In the case of boron particles
supported in foam, framing camera photos, temperature measurements, and
aluminum witness plates suggest that the boron was completely vaporized
by the crush wave and that the boron vapor turbulently mixed with and
burned in the surrounding air. In the case of PTFE powder, X-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy of residues recovered from fragments of a
granite target slab suggest that heating was sufficient to dissociate the
PTFE to carbon vapor and molecular fluorine which reacted with the quartz
and aluminum silicates in the granite to form aluminum oxide and mineral
fluoride compounds.