PRESSABLE THERMOBARIC EXPLOSIVES: ALUMINIUM CONTAINING COMPOSITIONS BASED ON HMX AND RDX

摘要

Compositions that contain aluminium together with HMX or RDX as the high explosive have been manufactured safely in a water-slurry process despite the reactivity of aluminium with water. The binder system that has been investigated is HyTemp together with DiOctylAdipate (DOA) as the plasticizer. This binder system was chosen due to the well-known good property for use in IM purposes. The process produces granules suitable for pressing and is characterized by composition analysis, bulk density and shape. The pressability of the compositions has been investigated as a function of the particle size distributions of the nitramine, the amount of binder and the content of aluminium. By using Reduced Sensitivity crystals of HMX or RDX, the compositions show a significant reduction in the shock sensitivity even though they are Pressable compositions. This observation is in agreement with what is observed also for other pressable compositions that have been reported earlier. The water slurry process have also been used to produce an analogue to the composition designated as PBXIH-18 that contains the same binder system.