Pyrotechnic Smoke Compositions Containing Boron Carbide.

摘要

Smokes are used on the battlefield for signaling, for marking targets, and for screening troop movements. Many high-performance compositions are toxic or hazardous, while non-toxic alternatives offer sub-par performance. The environmentally benign compositions described herein use boron carbide as a pyrotechnic fuel to produce thick clouds of white smoke. Experimentation and thermodynamic modeling were used in conjunction to develop the compositions which were then evaluated both visually and by transmittance-based measurements. Small scale smoke chamber tests indicate that some of these new systems can approach the performance of the AN-M8 HC composition (Al/ZnO/C2Cl6).