Differential scanning calorimetry and vacuum stability test as methods to determine explosives compatibility

Abstract

During production, storage and manipulation of explosive materials it is important to be able to evaluate potential risks when they come in contact with each other or with other non explosives materials. For this reason various analytical and instrumental methods are being developed and implemented to study the chemical compatibility of explosives with other materials. In this research a possibility has been examined of application of thermal method-Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Vacuum Stability Test (VST) as methods to determine the compatibility of often used explosive materials: Octogen (HMX), Pentrite (PETN) and Ammonium Perchlorate (AP) with also often used polymer materials: polyamide 12 (PA 12), Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB), fluoroelastomer (Viton A). Standard STANAG4147 was used as criteria to estimate the compatibility between the observed materials.

Keywords

• energetic materials
• explosives
• polymers
• compatibility
• differential scanning calorimetry
• vacuum stability test