Heat of explosion of commercial and brisant high explosives

Abstract

Methods for determining the heat of explosion of high explosives (HEs) with ideal and nonideal processes of explosive decomposition are considered. It is shown that the heat of explosion is of significance for estimating the efficiency of commercial HEs and is used in the energetic characterization of the working capacity. The heat of explosion of brisant HEs is only part of the blast heat of explosion and is the heat content of gaseous detonation products during their isentropic expansion from the initial state to a certain expansion ratio (determined by experimental conditions). The heat of explosion can be obtained by thermodynamic calculations based on physically justified equations of state for fluids (gaseous detonation products in the chemical-reaction zone of the detonation wave in the supercritical state) and condensed nanocarbon phases (nanographite, nanodiamond, and liquid carbon). Experimental and calculated values of the heat of explosion are given. The thermodynamic calculation is inapplicable to commercial HEs because of the nonideal nature of their detonation. The heat of explosion of commercial HEs can be calculated using the Hess law. The heat of explosion of brisant HEs is not a measure of power. The power of HEs is characterized by the propellant performance. It is shown that even detonation velocity cannot be a measure of the power of HEs. The power and detonation parameters of brisant HEs are determined by the energy release density in unit volume of the chemical-reaction zone of the detonation wave and by the rate of energy release from the shock front rather than by the heat of explosion, which cannot be considered a universal characteristic.