ST. PETERSBURG. Sept 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The St. Petersburg- based Special Materials Scientific Industrial Association has developed a device, designed to localize high-explosive and thermal effects of explosions with an output totaling up to five kilograms of TNT equivalent. The tests of the localizer, designated Fontan-5000, prove a considerable reduction in the high-explosive and thermal effect of an explosion totaling five kilograms of TNT equivalent, a press-service official of the enterprise told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
"The Fontan-5000 is a modular structure, comprising separate sections, filled with dispersant, simulating high- density liquid-gas environment. The sections are quartered in a fabric case, fitted with components, attaching the modules to each other. The weight of a single section is less than 30 kg. The tests undertaken were aimed at testing localizers, comprising six sections. They were placed next to the explosive charge in a closed rectangle of four sections, with two sections covering the charge from above. The Fontan-5000 localizer's protective characteristics were determined in compliance with the results of measurements of positive pressure of the blast wave with the help of piezoelectric pressure gauges.
According to the source, the localizer's behavior during the explosion and its efficiency in suppressing the thermal blast were determined by videotape. The tape shows that the diameter of the fireball of an open explosion totals about ten meters, and lasts about 300 microseconds. While the localized explosion has a fireball of less than three meters in diameter, which lasts less than 50 microseconds.
"The results of videotape analysis prove that localizers, made of different components, are destroyed in different ways. Modular localizers operate as a whole during an explosion. At the same time each component disintegrates into small parts during an explosion," the source said.
According to him, the analysis of terrorist attacks, involving explosives, in the past few years proves that human casualties might have been reduced, if suspicious objects had timely been covered with special devices, which reduce the high- explosive and fragmentation effects of an explosion.
Such devices are known as localizers or inhibitors and are used in many countries. The Special Materials Scientific Industrial Association specializes in producing such devices in Russia. It has also developed a family of Fontan-1M, Fontant-2M, and Fontan-3M localizers, designed to localize high-explosive, thermal, and fragmentation effects of explosive charges, totaling up to 0.4, 0.8, and 1 kg of TNT equivalent respectively.