Excess energetic materials as ingredients in commercial explosives
- Universal Tech Corp., Riverton, KS (United States). R and D Lab.
- Universal Tech Corp., Dallas, TX (United States)
The efforts were focused on investigating the feasibility of using excess energetic materials from the Department of Defense and Aerospace Industries as ingredients in commercial explosives. The management of the excess energetic materials inventory in this country has become a serious problem facing the Department of Defense and its contractors, the Aerospace Industry and both state and federal regulatory agencies. According to the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, the United States uses over 2 million metric tons of commercial explosives per year. The possibility of using these excess energetic materials in even a small portion of the commercial explosives which are used presents a significant outlet. A Class 1.3 Composite propellant (containing ammonium perchlorate and aluminum) and a Smokeless Powder Propellant (double based propellant) were researched. The safety and technical aspects of adding these materials to several common types of commercial explosives at the point of manufacture were investigated. Explosive characteristics such as detonation velocity, critical diameter, and energy release were also measured. It was concluded that the resulting mixtures either maintained the explosive characteristics of the standard formulations or they exhibited significantly enhanced explosive characteristics over those of the standard formulations. The use of these excess energetic materials as ingredients in commercial explosives presents a viable alternate use.
- OSTI ID:
- 398329
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9401127--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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