Discrimination Between Explosive Materials and Isomers Using a Human Color Vision-Inspired Sensing Method

Abstract

This paper describes the application of a human color vision approach to infrared (IR) chemical sensing for the discrimination between multiple explosive materials deposited on aluminum substrates. This methodology classifies chemicals using the unique response of the chemical vibrational absorption bands to three broadband overlapping IR optical filters. For this effort, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is first used to computationally examine the ability of the human color vision sensing approach to discriminate between three similar explosive materials, 1,3,5,-Trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX), 2,2-Bis[(nitrooxy)methyl]propane-1,3,-diyldinitrate (PETN), and 1,3,5,7-Tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (HMX). A description of a laboratory breadboard optical sensor designed for this approach is then provided, along with the discrimination results collected for these samples using this sensor. The results of these studies demonstrate that the human color vision approach is capable of high-confidence discrimination of the examined explosive materials.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 19, 2019
Source ID
10.1177/0003702819828411

Entities

People

  • Christopher R. Wilson
  • Ishwar Aggarwal
  • Jasbinder S. Sanghera
  • Kenneth J Ewing
  • Kevin J Major
  • Menelaos Poutous
  • Thomas C. Hutchens

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Naval Research Laboratory
  • University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Tags

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.
  • Spectroscopy.