General Concepts and Classification of Explosives

An explosion can be generally defined as a process of the sudden expansion of matter to a volume much larger than the initial one. By this concept, the totalities of effects, including combustion, and detonation, as well as purely physical processes, such as sudden expansion of compressed gas, are understood. 

Although explosions are usually associated with loud noise, clouds of black smoke, and scattering, they differ in nature, in particular in the physical nature of the energy of explosion and in the way it is released. One usually notices only the outward manifestation of the explosion. 

The sources of the explosion energy are various chemical, nuclear, thermal, electric, kinetic energy, energy of elastic compression, and the like. When a particular source of explosion energy is considered, three fundamental types of explosion can be distinguished physical, chemical, and nuclear explosions. 

Physical explosions (electrical discharges, steam explosion, volcanic explosion, meteor hitting Earth, and others) and nuclear explosions (thermonuclear reactions on the Sun s surface) have always been present in the universe. According to some theories, explosions took part in the creation of the galaxies and Earth and also contribute to large and small scale qualitative changes that occurred on Earth s surface. 

Suceska, Test Methods for Explosives Springer Science+Business Media New York 1995 

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In the five chapters of this book General Concepts and Classification of Explosives, Sensitivity of Explosives, Combustion of Explosives, Detonation, and Working C iacity of Explosives, over 50 different testing methods are (te-scribed. 

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