Failure characteristics and stress wave propagation of red sandstone under explosion with varying gas energies

Abstract This study designs a blasting loading device capable of changing the utilization of explosive gas by modifying the constraint conditions. The propagation of crack and stress waves in red sandstone under different explosive gases is recorded using digital image correlation technology and ultra‐dynamic strain gauges. Both methods are effectively validated against each other. The results showed that as the utilization of explosive gas increases, the explosive stress wave induces layer cracking at the specimen's far end and tensile failure at its near end. In addition, the larger the stress wave's amplitude, the greater the spatial attenuation coefficients of the compression and tension waves. The study ultimately deduces the propagation process of the incident wave and analyzes the influence of stress wave propagation on the specimen's failure characteristics.