Tubular specimens of stainless steel with smooth and notched walls were explosively expanded to fragmentation. The driver was a column of the high explosive PETN inserted into the central bore and initiated by exploding a bundle of fine copper wires using a discharge current from a high-voltage capacitor bank. The effect of wall thicknesses and different explosive driver diameters are reported for smooth walled cylinders. Fully charged notched cylinders with single axial groove or slit in the walls were also exploded for comparison. Streak and framing photos show both radially and axially symmetric expansion of cylinders at average strain rates of above 10(4) s(-1) and a wall velocity of 667-1550 m/s for smooth cylinders. Some framing photos indicate the initiation and spacing of fractures during the bursting of the cylinders. A hydro code based on FDM and SPH has been applied to simulate the experimental behavior of the cylinders, examining numerical stresses, deformation and fracture criteria. The circumferential fracture spacing of recovered fragments is investigated using a fragmentation model. There were some differences in fragmentation between smooth and notched cylinders, but overall deformation behavior was almost same.