The chemistry of detonations. VII. A simplified method for predicting explosive performance in the cylinder test

Abstract

A simple equation is derived for predicting explosive performance in the cylinder test. The equation takes the form, V ( mm/μsec)=0.368φ 0.54ρ 0.84 0(R−R 0) 0.212 0.065 ρ0 , φ=NM 1 2 Q 1 2 where V is the wall velocity, R − R 0 the radial expansion in cm, ρ 0 the loading density, N the number of moles of gaseous detonation products per gram of explosive, M the average molecular weight of these gases, and Q the heat of detonation in calories per gram. The equation is shown to predict wall velocities with a precision of approximately 1% for CHNO explosives and CHNOF explosives which produce HF but not CF 4 in their detonations. An “HFCF 4H 2OCO 2 arbitrary” is used to predict detonation products of fluoroexplosives.