High Energy Metallic Mechanical Alloys for New Explosives and Incendiary Devices with Controllable Explosion Parameters
Abstract
The feasibility of production of metastable mechanical alloys is demonstrated and combustion behavior of alloys and pure metals is compared. Sets of Al-Mg, Al-Mg-H, B-Mg, Al-B, and Ti-B mechanical alloys were prepared. X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and laser diffraction were used to characterize structures, morphology, and sizes of the produced alloys, respectively. The produced materials were nano-crystalline metastable phases with particle sizes in the range of 1 - 50 micrometers. A constant volume explosion technique was used to evaluate performance of the produced alloys and to compare it to that of pure metal powders of different sizes and morphologies. The recorded pressure traces served as the main piece of experimental information, combustion products were also collected and analyzed. The results have clearly shown that the combustion behavior of pure boron and aluminum powders can be dramatically improved by alloying these materials with Ti and Mg, respectively. Preliminary results also indicate improved boron combustion when boron is alloyed with Mg. Alloying boron with Al showed no such improvement, however. The improvements in the ignition and combustion parameters are found to be significant even though quite coarse mechanical alloy powders were prepared and tested in this effort. The relatively large size of mechanical alloy powders is expected to be advantageous in practical applications requiring mixing and handling of the energetic metal powders.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 06, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA397097
Entities
People
- Edward L Dreizin
- Emil Shtessel
Organizations
- New Jersey Institute of Technology