Thermal Stability and Detonation Characteristics of Pressed and Elastic Explosives on the Basis of Selected Cyclic Nitramines

Abstract

Bicyclo-HMX (cis-1, 3, 4, 6-tetranitro-octahydroimidazo-[4, 5-d] imidazole or BCHMX) was studied as a plastic explosive bonded with the C4 matrix and with Viton A. Also a series of nitramines namely RDX (1, 3, 5-trinitro- 1, 3, 5-triazinane), HMX (1, 3, 5, 7-tetranitro-1, 3, 5, 7-tetrazocane) and HNIW (e-2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12-hexanitro-2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12-hexaazaisowurtzitane, e-CL-20) were studied for comparison with the same types of binders. The detonation velocity, D, of all prepared mixtures was measured. Their thermal stability was determined using non-isothermal differential thermal analysis (DTA). While the C4 matrix lowers the thermal stability of the resulting explosives, Viton A enhances this stability. Approximate relationships between the peaks of exothermic decomposition and the D values were found. The detonation parameters were also calculated by means of Kamlet & Jacobs method, CHEETAH and improved EXPLO5 code for all the mixtures. From the measured D values and the calculated detonation parameters, it is obvious that the detonation parameters of BCHMX-mixtures are very close to HMX-explosives and better than those of RDX-mixtures. It was found that the C4 matrix reduces the difference between the values of energy of detonation in the studied C4 mixtures. As expected, the pressed HNIW-Viton A mixture has the highest detonation parameters of all of the prepared mixtures.