Explosion Hazards of Oxidizer Mixtures

Hazards of detonation and violent combustion of oxidizer mixtures are generally evaluated by tests of detonation—propagation, initiation sensitivity and explosion power. For oxidizer mixtures explosiveness is important To ensure the safety of operaters, it is necessary to investigate the mixing ignition, stability and super high—sensitivity with a small mass of sample before the practical test. In this field Treumann has done much of the work 1 1.  

In oxidizer mixtures, the range of initiation sensitivity is very wide from super high sensitivity to very low sensitivity. Test methods differs with sensitivity. For super high sensitivity mixtures, testing must be carried out with only a small mass of sample because of their explosiveness. On the other hand, the determination of explosion is readly made. The small drop ball test(Sec. 3.3) is reasonable. 

For mixtures with median sensitivity, it is difficult to determine whether explosion happens or not in the drop hammer test. Variable initiator tests using the ballistic mortar(Sec. 3.3) are better. 

For mixtures with low sensitivity, detonation-propagation must be investigated. For example, we cannot say the mixture possesses hazards of explosion if it cannot sustain propagation of detonation. A large quantity of sample is necessary in tests of this kind. Because of the noise of explosion, the explosion test under sand (Sec.3.8)is recommeded. 

Most of mixtures of oxidizer and red phosphorus possess very high sensitivity. The results of drop hammer tests for this kind of mixture is shown in Sec.3.3. In the range of experiments, the mixtures of red phosphorus with bromite, chlorite and sodium peroxide possess very high sensitivity. 

---