Thermal Cook-Off Experiments of the HMX Based High Explosive LX-04 to Characterize Violence with Varying Confinement

Abstract

Thermal cook‐off experiments were carried out using LX‐04 explosive (85% HMX and 15% Viton by weight) with different levels of confinement to characterize the effect of confinement on the reaction violence. These experiments involved heating a porous LX‐04 sample in a stainless steel container with varying container end plate thickness and assembly bolt diameter to control overall confinement. As expected, detonation did not occur and reducing the overall confinement lowered the reaction violence. This is consistent with modeling results that predict that a lower confinement will act to lower the cook‐off pressure and thus the overall burn rate which lowers the overall violence. These results suggest that controlling the overall system confinement can modify the relative safety in a given scenario.