Mott Formula
Definition
An empirical relationship, derived from wartime UK research by N.F. Mott, predicting the statistical distribution of fragment masses from a metal casing cylindrical bomb; used forensically to characterise device casing geometry from recovered fragment size distributions.
Related terms
- Brisance
- The shattering power of a detonating explosive, distinct from heave (bulk displacement). Measured by the Trauzl lead block test. High-brisance explosives (RDX,...
- Chapman-Jouguet (CJ) Condition
- The steady-state condition in a detonating explosive at which the coupled shock and reaction zone travel at the same velocity (the detonation...
- Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition (DDT)
- The acceleration of a deflagrating burn front to supersonic detonation velocity, triggered by confinement. Relevant to understanding how improvised devices using low...
- DMDNB Taggant
- Dimethyldinitrobutane, a detection marker incorporated into plastic explosives (including Semtex) under the ICAO 1991 Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives; allows...
- Dynamic Pressure
- The pressure component due to mass flow of gas behind the shock front, proportional to gas velocity squared; the blast wind that...
- Friedlander Waveform
- The idealised time-pressure history at a point in air following a blast: instantaneous rise to peak overpressure at shock arrival, exponential decay...
- Hopkinson-Cranz Scaling
- The law relating peak overpressure and positive-phase duration to the ratio of range to cube-root-of-charge-mass (the scaled distance Z = R /...
- Mach Stem
- The reinforced shock front that forms near a reflective surface when the direct blast wave and its reflected wave merge, producing anomalously...
- Peak Static Overpressure (Ps)
- The maximum pressure increase above ambient at the shock front, the primary structural damage parameter, scaling with the inverse cube root of...
Explained in
- Blast Dynamics: Overpressure, Fragmentation, Deflagration vs DetonationAn empirical relationship, derived from wartime UK research by N.F. Mott, predicting the statistical distribution of fragment masses from a metal casing cylind...