Dependence of Detonation Velocity of Explosives on Effective Atomic Number and Effective Electron Density of the Explosives

Abstract

Detonation velocity is one of the most important characteristics of explosives. For solid hydro carbon-based explosives it is generally greater than 4000 m/s. Detonation velocity depends to some extent upon the particle size of the explosives, increased charge diameter and increased confinement of the explosive. There is no report indicating the dependence of detonation velocity on the effective atomic number and effective electron density of the explosive. In the present work, we have arbitrarily chosen eight explosives. Four of these have detonation velocity between 9400 and 10100 m/s, and the other four has detonation velocity between 4500 and 5300 m/s. Direct method was used to calculate effective atomic number and effective electron densities various explosives. On calculating effective atomic number and effective electron density, it was found that detonation velocity of explosives does depend upon these two parameters. For explosives with high detonation velocity, effective atomic number is high and effective electron density is low while for low detonation velocity explosives it is reverse. It was also found that the variation of effective atomic number and effective electron density as a function of gamma ray energy can be explained on the basis of three different gamma ray inter action mechanism of gamma rays with matter.