Near-Field Performance Evaluations of Alex Effect in Metallised Explosives

Abstract

Nanometric aluminium grades such as Alex are known to react more rapidly than conventional aluminium grades in propellant and explosive compositions. To characterise Alex, and evaluate its influence upon near-field performance of explosive formulations, a series of velocity of detonation measurements and plate dent depth tests (detonation pressure) were performed on TNT/RDX/Al, TNT/Inert and Tritonal variants containing CAP45a and Alex. To clarify if the use of Alex reduced the critical diameters, critical diameter tests were performed on Tritonal variants. Modelling results with CHEETAH on heats of detonation, diameter effect and critical diameter are presented. Effects of adding different ingredients (inert ingredients, aluminium and high explosive such as RDX) are also discussed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA423635

Entities

People

  • Helen E. Dorsett
  • Jing P. Lu
  • Mark D. Franson
  • Matthew D. Cliff

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Blast
  • Chemistry
  • Energetic Materials
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Explosions
  • Explosive Ordnance Disposal
  • Explosives
  • High Explosives
  • Insensitive Explosives
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Science
  • Near Field
  • Particle Size
  • Plastic Bonded Explosives
  • Systems Science

Readers

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