T6-4 - Assessment of Storage Life of Energetic Substances Close to Safety Critical Conditions

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates the use of powerful software tools that reliably give a kinetic model of decomposition behavior of compounds such as Butadiene-1, 2 and a nitro aromatic residue based on DTA/DSC measurements at a range of different heating rates, allowing to calculate the adiabatic induction time for different temperatures based on model parameters. Extended calculations based on the “Thomas model” even take realistic yet sufficiently conservative heat transfer conditions in a vessel or package into account. An uncontrolled decomposition of energetic substances may cause considerable damage to the surrounding. Energetic substances often have to be stored before they are converted or dissipated. The storage of large amounts of these substances may come along with specific risks caused by long residence time in combination with heat accumulation because of missing heat transfer from the bulk material to the surroundings. When the storage of energetic substances with respect to thermal stability needs to be assessed, “time to maximum rate” (TMR) at the maximum storage temperature is the most important characteristic. When screening measurements, such as DTA, exhibit a critical exothermic decomposition close to the designed storage temperature, a sound assessment of storage life for such substances becomes a safety issue of great importance..