Secondary high expls

Secondary High Explosives. A high expl which is relatively insensitive to heat and shock and is usually initiated by a primary high explosive,... 

The use of nuclear techniques for the detection of buried expls (in mines) has been investigated by the US Army over the past 25 years. The basic approach is the use of a direct beam of highly penetrating radiation to irradiate the soil and the measurement of a reflected, scattered, induced or secondary signal to indicate the presence of a buried mine. A complete historical review and analysis of this work has been prepared by Coleman et al (Ref 18), A brief summary of the highlights of the overall effort is provided here... 

The percentages shown are by wt TACOT is the trade name for a duPont high-temp-resistant secondary expl... 

As shown in Fig 4, the stab detonator is a small, sensitive component which is capable of reliably initiating high-order detonation in the next HE element in the expl train. It differs from the primer in that its output will initiate reliably secondary HE charges... 

Detonation High-, Low-, and Intermediate Order, Velocities of. It has been known since the end of the last century that some liquid expls (such as NG or NGc) and some gelatinous expls (such as Gelatin Dynamites) are capable of detonating at either low (1000-2000 m/sec) or high velocity (up to 8000 m/sec), depending on method of initiation. More recently it was found that the same phenomenon can occur, under certain conditions, with crystalline secondary, or even primary, expls... 

Investigations of direct electric ignition of secondary expls such as PETN and RDX were carried out for more than 15 years, especially wirh exploding u/ires, where thin wires were rapidly evaporated under formation of a shock wave, thru abrupt application of high electric energy produced for example by a capacitor (condenser) discharge... 

It was also established that primary plosophores are responsible for high power and brisance of expls and these are at the maximum in compds whose oxygen balance to C0a (see under Available Oxygen) is favorable (close to zero). The relationship betw power and oxygen balance vanishes when one considers secondary plosphores and further, with few exceptions, secondary... 

A 4000 volt discharge from a 1 microF condenser thru a 2-mil diam gold vtire initiated high-order deton in RDX and other secondary expls. Build-up to deton under these conditions is slower for RDX than for PETN (Ref 15) Low order explns in thin layers of PETN, RDX, DINA and Tetryl, compressed to 1200— 1500kg/cm, were studied photographically. Hot ots were simulated in the expls by a 0.15mm diam heated resistance wire. Low-order explns prop ated from these hot spots. The propagation rates for PETN, RDX, DINA, and Tetryl were 700—800, 700, 550, and 300 m/sec, respectively (Ref 14)... 

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