Transmission and Reflection Terahertz Spectroscopy of Insensitive Melt-Cast High-Explosive Materials

Abstract

Currently, artillery shells and grenades that are introduced into the market are based on melt-castable insensitive high explosives (IHEs), which do not explode while they run a risk of impact, heat or shrapnel. Particles of explosives (such as hexogen, nitroguanidine and nitrotriazolone) are suspended in different proportions in a matrix of 2.4-dinitroanisole. In this paper, we investigated samples of commonly used IHEs: PAX-41, IMX-104 and IMX-101, whose internal structures were determined by a scanning electron microscope. Terahertz time domain spectroscopy was applied in both transmission and reflection configurations. At first, the complex refraction indices of four pure constituents creating IHEs were determined and became the basis of further calculations. Next, the experimentally determined transmission and reflection spectra of IHEs and pure constituents were compared with theoretical considerations. The influence of the grain size of constituent material and scattering on the reflection spectra was analysed, and good agreement between the experimental and theoretical data was achieved.