PETN Experimental Detonation Velocities

All three complexes (I-III) listed in Table 9.10 are less sensitive to impact than PETN. Theoretical detonation velocities of all three complexes at their TMD are over 8 km s . From the experimental results, it seems that these complexes can be dead pressed. The results in Table 9.10 clearly indicate that replacement of perchlorate by dinitroguanidine or azide leads to a product with insufficient thermal stability and insufficient performance [27]. 

The newly developed equation of state was applied to the calculation of detonation properties. In this context, one stringent test of any equation of state is the prediction of detonation velocities as a function of initial densities, and we chose for this purpose PETN. The Cheetah results are shown in Figure 7 along with the experimental data.53 The agreement is again very good. 

Whereas the slope of the rule given in Section 5.3 was only good for ranges of 10 to 15% change in densities, this estimate applies well over the entire range of densities achievable. An example of this is shown in Figure 5.12, where we see experimentally derived values of detonation velocity of PETN plotted versus... 

Some explosives do not exhibit appreciable amounts of build-up. PETN has minimal build-up behavior as a function of distance of run. The performance of PBX-9502 (95/5 wt% TATB/Kel F at 1.894 g/cc) is reported in reference 46. The initial free surface of Dural plates driven by 1.25, 2.5 and 5.0 cm thick slabs of PBX-9502 appeared to scale as a function of Dural plate thickness to PBX-9502 thickness within the large uncertainities associated with the experimental data. Recently the Russians have performed more accurate TATB experiments and found a 20% change in the effective C-J pressure for charge lengths of 3 to 18 cm with only a 2% change in detonation velocity. This study is described in section 2.9. 

The LMU Munich research group has also been looking at tetrazole-free nitrogen-rich compounds that contain oxidizing groups such as nitramine functionalities. In this context, the preparation and structural characterization of dinitrobiuret (DNB) (Fig. 31) was carried out [109,110]. The high chemical and thermal stability of DNB and the determined critical diameter of 6 mm for DNB (Figs. 32, 33) in the Koenen test (steel shell test) is comparable to the values reported for HMX (8 mm), RDX (8 mm), or PETN (6 mm) and prompted us to obtain the thermodynamic data and detonation pressures and velocities for DNB in a combined experimental and theoretical study. 

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