Abstract
The precursor air shock wave (PAS), which propagates ahead of the detonation front in an air channel, precompresses and desensitizes the unreacted explosive charges. Under some conditions, the PAS causes detonation failure. This phenomenon is known as the channel effect. To investigate the mechanism of this effect in emulsion explosives, some experimental works have been carried out using a high-speed framing camera. The results of photographic observation demonstrated that the difference between PAS velocity and detonation velocity was the dominate factor for the channel effect. It is assumed that a decrease in the PAS velocity can prevent the channel effect.