Impact sensitivities of explosives explored by the OZM ball drop tester (BIT-132)

摘要

Safety, performance and toxicity are the most important aspects of modern explosives. Sensitivity measurements are carried out in different manners all around the world, often making a comparison of the results difficult. Due to this, we present our first results on the novel ball drop tester (BIT-132), manufactured by OZM research, following MIL-STD-1751A (method 1016). The sensitivity tester is a device, dropping a free-falling steel ball onto an unconfined sample, assumed to produce results more realistic than currently used methods like the BAM drophammer. Eleven common primary explosives such as lead azide, lead styphnate, silver azide, KDNBF, K_2DNABT, tetrazene and others, as well as the secondary explosives PETN, RDX, TKX-50 and FOX-7 were chosen for evaluation. The results according to the Probit analysis were compared to the energies observed by the BAM drophammer. The differences between the results of both methods as well as advantages and disadvantages are discussed.