An Integrated Look at Insensitive High Explosives - Why Are They Insensitive?

摘要

The sensitivity of explosives to thermal or mechanical stimuli is controlled by the chemical and physical properties of the explosive materials. Integration of years of study allows identification and comparison of several of these properties for explosives with a range of sensitivity - HMX, Explosive D, LLM-105 and TATB. I identify key material properties that determine overall sensitivity, including the extremely safe behavior of Insensitive High Explosives, and discuss an approach to predicting the sensitivity or insensitivity of an explosive.