Explosive Chemical Signatures from Military Ordnance
Abstract
Military testing and training ranges contain large numbers of unexploded ordnance and range scrap. The significant safety issues with unexploded ordnance require very costly and time consuming efforts to locate and distinguish explosive containing items from harmless ordnance fragments, target practice units and other range scrap. This work was completed to measure the explosive chemical signature emitted from a small set of unexploded ordnance items to determine if chemical sensing could be a viable discrimination method. The work included measurement of ordnance surface residues and flux into water during immersion tests both prior to and after conventional firing and field recovery. Measurement of chemical residues in soil samples collected adjacent to unexploded ordnance items were performed to determine the net chemical signature derived from the emitted flux and biochemical degradation at two ranges with distinctly disparate environmental conditions. The data collected in this effort indicates that a unique persistent distinguishing trace chemical signature emitted from unexploded ordnance does not prevail under all test and field conditions sampled. This indicates that trace chemical sensing for unexploded ordnance. discrimination may not be a robust technique in support of military range cleanup efforts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA611476
Entities
People
- J. J. Phelan
- J. L. Barnett
- P. J. Rodacy
Organizations
- Sandia National Laboratories