Transforming polymorphs, melting, and boiling during cookoff of PETN
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Transforming polymorphs, melting, and boiling are physical processes that can accelerate decomposition rates during cookoff of PETN and make measurements difficult. For example, splashing liquids from large bubbles filled with decomposition products clog pressure tubing in sealed experiments. Boil over can also extinguish thermal excursions in vented experiments making ignition difficult. For better measurements, we have modified the Sandia Instrumented Thermal Ignition (SITI) experiment to obtain better sealed and vented cookoff data for PETN by reducing the sample size and including additional gas space to prevent clogged tubing and boil over. Ignition times were not affected by 1) increasing the gas space by a factor of 3 in sealed SITI experiments or by 2) venting the decomposition gasses. That is, thermal ignition of PETN is not pressure dependent and the rate-limiting step during PETN decomposition likely occurs in the condensed phase. A simple decomposition model was calibrated using these observations and includes rate acceleration caused by melting and boiling. The model is used to predict internal temperatures, pressurization, and thermal ignition in a wide variety of experiments. Furthermore, the model is also used with SITI data to estimate the previously unreported latent enthalpy (5 J/g) associated with the α (PETN-I) to β (PETN-II) polymorphic phase transformation of PETN.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0003525
- OSTI ID:
- 1834326
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1862466
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--2021-14249J; 701466
- Journal Information:
- Combustion and Flame, Journal Name: Combustion and Flame Vol. 237; ISSN 0010-2180
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Thermal Decomposition of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate
|
journal | August 2003 |
Response of PETN detonators to elevated temperatures
|
journal | January 2021 |
PETN Ignition Experiments and Models
|
journal | April 2010 |
Thermal conductivity of energetic materials
|
journal | October 2019 |
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate II: its crystal structure and transformation to PETN I; an algorithm for refinement of crystal structures with poor data
|
journal | July 1975 |
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