Aluminized Enhanced Blast Explosive Based on Polysiloxane Binder

Abstract

Drastic measures are taken in order to improve the properties of enhanced blast explosives. First, a binder with high reactivity as reducing agent is selected. The binder, platinum cure silicone, generates pyrophoric decomposition products in situ during the detonation. Arising problems with curing inhibition of the polymer are solved, as nanosized SiO2 is employed as hardening catalyst carrier. Quantum calculations show specific interactions of the binder and aluminum, forming the backbone of the composition. Furthermore, particle size distribution of the main fuel, aluminum powder, is selected so the Al will have enough time to heat, ignite and burn in the atmosphere, creating the thermobaric effect. Potassium perchlorate is employed as an oxidizer, as it reacts with detonation products faster than the widely used ammonium perchlorate. The resulting enhanced blast explosive is denoted as H-TBX. High speed camera results show similar shock wave velocity 2.5 m from 2.7 kg TNT charge (2 ms after initiation) and 3.5 m from 2.65 kg H-TBX charge (3 ms after initiation). In the open field, the H-TBX generates 1.83 times higher peak pressure and 2 times higher impulse than TNT. These findings are compared with data from the literature for Tritonal, PBXN-109 and AFX-757. H-TBX has improved parameters over the former generations of enhanced blast explosives and is currently used in multiple weapons systems.