Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules

In order to clarify the problem of decomposition products, a set of rules was developed during World War II by Kistiakowsky and Wilson. These rules are nowadays known as the Kistiakowsky- Wilson rules (K-W rules). These rules should only be used for moderately oxygen-deficient explosives with an oxygen balance greater than — 40.0. 

Using these rules, the decomposition products of HMX (C4H8N808) can be determined as shown in Table 5.4. 

2 If any oxygen remains then hydrogen is then oxidized to water  

3 If any oxygen still remains then carbon monoxide is oxidized  

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A widely recognised approach uses the modified Kistiakowsky—Wilson rules to predict the chemical products from an explosion, and then the Berthelot approximation to evaluate the explosive output compared with a standard explosive, usually TNT. 

Table 5.6 Decomposition products of TNT using the modified Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules...

The Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules cannot be used for explosive materials which have an oxygen balance lower than —40. Under these circumstances the modified Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules must be employed. 

The modified Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules (mod. K-W rules) are presented in Table 5.5. 

A variation to Kistiakowsky Wilson and modified Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules is provided by the Springall Roberts rules. 

The Springall Roberts rules take the unmodified Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules and add on two more conditions as shown in Table 5.9. 

Table 5.16 Decomposition products of 60% RDX/40% TNTusing the Kistiakowsky—Wilson rules...

As a starting point the decomposition products for RDX (C3H6N6Oe) are calculated from the Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules (Q = —21.60) as shown in Reaction 6.2. 

The reaction for the decomposition of explosive substances can therefore be determined using either the Kistiakowsky-Wilson (K-W) rules or the modified Kistiakowsky-Wilson (mod. K-W) rules. Tables 5.7 and 5.8 present equations for the decomposition for some explosive materials using the Kistiakowsky-Wilson and the modified Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules, respectively. 

Table 5.5 Modified Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules Rule no. Conditions...

The reaction for the decomposition products of the mixed explosive composition can be determined by applying the modihed Kistiakowsky-Wilson rules as shown in Table 5.16. 

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