- Author
- Gross, D. | Amster, A. B.
- Title
- Thermal Explosions: Adiabatic Self-Heating of Explosives and Propellants.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- Combustion Institute, Symposium (International) on Combustion, 8th, August 28-September 3, 1960, Pasadena, CA, 728-734 p., 1960
- Keywords
- thermal explosions | self-heating | adiabatic heating | explosives | propellants | kinetics | heat capacity | thermal conductivity | impact sensitivity
- Abstract
- An explosive may be defined as a substance in a metastable state of internal equilibrium which, being subjected to a comparatively small external activation, turns rapidly into a hot gas producing a very high local pressure. The sensitivity of an explosive is defined in terms of the magnitude of this activation, i.e., the greater the required activation, the less sensitive the material is said to be. Many different methods have been used to measure explosive sensitivity often with conflicting results. Any attempt to explain these anomalics leads to a requirement for knowledge of the thermal, thermochemical and kinetic properties of the systems involved. For a number of explosives and propellants, this paper reports some measurement of these properties and suggests a correlation with one type of sensitivity, namely sensitivity to impact.