Detonation propagation along percolating cluster in composite explosives

Vitaly Komarov,Gennady Sakovich,Maxim Kazutin,Nikolai Kozyrev,Nikolai Popok,A Vorozhtsov

doi:10.1051/matecconf/201824300027

Abstract

The detonation performance of melt-cast plastic-bonded explosives (PBXs) based on high melting explosive octogen (HMX) was studied in the paper. It has been found that the detonation velocity strongly depends from the dispersion distribution of HMX particles: it changes from 7800 to 8700 m/s. We explain this by the possibility of detonation propagation in PBX through different mechanisms, including detonation front propagation along a percolating cluster formed by filler particles. Thus, varying the particle size distribution can bring about one detonation mechanism or another and hence control the energy release dynamics of melt-cast PBXs to attain high efficiency in practice. Experimental results confirm the assumptions.

Highlights

Plastic-bonded explosives (PBX) structurally represent mixed high-order explosives with a polymeric binder
The purpose on this paper is to show the relationships between detonation velocity, acceleration ability, and filler particle size while preserving casting properties
We examined a melt-cast PBXs based on an APB – a homogeneous explosive system – which is a plasticized methylpolyvinyltetrazole polymer (CHNO-type) having a density of about 1.5 g/cm3

Summary

Introduction

Plastic-bonded explosives (PBX) structurally represent mixed high-order explosives with a polymeric binder. Due to heterogeneity PBXs can be defined as a ‘solidsuspension’ in which explosive crystals (solid phase) are distributed in a continuous polymeric matrix (dispersed phase). There is a curing system in use that is based on dissolving the polymer in a plasticizer to generate a high-viscosity matrix (plastisol PBX). The hexogen (RDX) and high melting explosive octogen (HMX) are frequently used as the high-order filler of conventional PBXs. The polymeric binder is typically a homogeneous multicomponent system comprising a polymeric base, plasticizers, processing and performance additives, etc. Many PBXs contain aluminum as the energetic additive [1,2,3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion