Incorporating of BCHMX in traditional plastic explosives

Abstract

cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitro-octahydroimidazo-[4,5-d]imidazole (BCHMX) was investigated as an energetic filler with three different plastic explosives based on three matrices: C4 matrix, semtex10 matrix and EPX matrix. The original plastic explosives, composition C4 including RDX (1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane), Semtex 10 explosive based on PETN (pentaerythritoltetranitrate) and plastic RDX-silicone were included for comparison. Sensitivity and performance parameters were studied. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) was investigated to determine the thermal behavior. The sensitivities to friction and impact were evaluated and the explosive characteristics were determined by measuring the detonation velocity and determining the performance by the ballistic mortar test. The detonation parameters were also calculated for all samples using EXPLO5 code. By comparing the results obtained experimentally or by calculation, it is clear that the application of BCHMX in the used plastic matrices increases the performance and detonation characteristics in comparison with the original plastic explosives. Regarding to the results of sensitivity, thermal stability and performance tests, replacing PETN explosive by BCHMX in semtex matrices seems to form promising plastic explosive and needs further studies. On the other side, the performance of BCHMX-C4 is higher than that of composition C4.