Design and field experience with the WES 10 percent bar airblast and soil stress gage

A family of shock transducers based on the classical load-cell geometry, i.e., the elastic compression of a column, is currently under development at the waterways Experiment Station. The transducers include an airblast gage, a soil stress gage, and a soil-structure interface stress gage. These gages operate at considerable higher pressure ranges than previous elastic shock transducers. The airblast gage has provided long term (over 10 msec) measurements in blast environments of over 600 MPa (6 kbar). The theoretical operating pressure range of the gages is approximately 1000 MPa (10 kbar) limited by the elastic limit of the gage body steel. The actual pressure range to date has been limited by acceleration induced failures of the strain gages and internal wiring. The transducer development, is described and some dynamic measurements produced from these gages are given.