Shell Debris and Fragments

[Bcorso85]

Hey guys,

Today I was cleaning up the backyard after a few shows and i noticed some 3 inch round shell debris. Perfect (well almost perfect) hemispheres were all over. I think the shells were great in the air. Everything looked good. But the lack of fragments concerns me. The breaks weren't really huge, but comparable to a class B 2.5 inch suppose. Maybe a little bigger. Close either way. Is this a great shell or does this attest to a lack of force?

[AdmiralDonSnider]

From my limited experience and debris science I would attest quite low break force. The container seems to fail quite early when pressure builds up, and fails around the joint. This may be connected with pasting, the break charge or both.

 

Conceptually Poka shells in contrast to Warimono types is given a weak charge and pasting and I suppose those break like you describe, popping open being the desired behavior. A Warimono with a strong wall should stand the force for some time and then break into pieces (I found them to be about one 4th to one 5th of a hemi), giving all stars a good trajectory.

 

If the breaks are good for you, why should you bother, though? Not every item needs to imitate commercial performance - I don´t like the contemporary art of flashbreaking all things either, just makes unnecessarily loud displays and huge (and sparse) flowers.

[Potassiumchlorate]

I haven't seen what is left of my small ones, but the 5" and 6" are torn to relatively small pieces. I use H3 as a burst, though

[dagabu]

Having to rake the fields after we shoot shows, I have found fragments ranging in size from 1/2" to full hemi halves (obviously from parachute shells). Canister shells should shred the can walls abut the end disks should be whole with only short pieces of string hanging from the edge. Paper balls shells should fragment into the petals that the hemi is pressed from on the large side and should all but vaporize with a hard break (salutes).

 

Plastic should shatter into pieces no larger then 1/12 of the full hemi and never break as well as paper.

 

In homemade shells, there is a fine line between too hard a break and too soft a break, I add whistle to boost the break when needed.

 

-dag

[Bcorso85]

thanks guys. The funny thing is, i had a nice size helping of whistle mix on #46. I am happy with the shells. Maybe the breaks can be alittle larger. I think Ill try going back to breaking with b.p. for a while and see how it goes. Thanks guys.