Abstract
The behaviors of explosives under many conditions - e.g., sensitivity to inadvertent reactions, explosion, detonation - are controlled by the chemical and physical properties of the explosive materials. Several properties are considered for a range of improvised and conventional explosives. Here I compare these properties across a wide range of explosives to develop an understanding of explosive behaviors. For improvised explosives, which are generally heterogeneous mixtures of ingredients, a range of studies is identified as needed to more fully understand their behavior and properties. For conventional explosives, which are generally comprised of crystalline explosive molecules held together with a binder, I identify key material properties that determine overall sensitivity, including the extremely safe behavior of Insensitive High Explosives, and discuss an approach to predicting the sensitivity or insensitivity of an explosive.
Highlights
There are many forms of explosives, and each exhibits different behaviors
We have studied a range of explosives and their properties for many years, and here we present an evaluation of how material properties govern explosive behaviors for these types of explosives
In addition to the differences noted above, improvised and conventional explosives have markedly different reaction kinetics under detonation conditions and have different energy release behaviors. This means that methods developed for quantifying the performance of conventional explosives may not be accurate for improvised explosives
Summary
There are many forms of explosives, and each exhibits different behaviors. For example, conventional explosives are designed to be safe to handle and stable for long periods of time while maximizing detonation energy. Improvised explosives are generally comprised of physical mixtures of solids and / or liquids; for mixtures of solids the mean distance between oxidizer and fuels may be on the order of 10-4 m In this latter situation in which reactant masses must move large distances before chemical reactions can occur, slow mass transfer rates may control the overall kinetics of the detonation reaction. This is a gap in understanding of airblast and limits abilities to predict the effect of blasts from improvised explosives on structures or other target Failure to recognize these limits may lead to incorrect analysis of target vulnerability – for example, an explosive with high afterburn energy has a very different effect than one representative of conventional detonation of the same energy, depending on the physical response time of the target. We discuss several aspects of explosives and how they feed into the overall integrated response
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