Examination of Non-Ideal Explosives
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University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 2019 EXAMINATION OF NON-IDEAL EXPLOSIVES Ryan Charles Rettinger University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss Recommended Citation Rettinger, Ryan Charles, "EXAMINATION OF NON-IDEAL EXPLOSIVES" (2019). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 825. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/825 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EXAMINATION OF NON-IDEAL EXPLOSIVES BY RYAN CHARLES RETTINGER A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN CHEMISTRY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2019 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION OF RYAN CHARLES RETTINGER APPROVED: Dissertation Committee: Major Professor Jimmie C. Oxley Co-Major Professor James L. Smith Brenton DeBoef Tao Wei Godi Fisher Nasser H. Zawia DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2019 ABSTRACT As seen in multiple cases, including the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, improvised explosives compositions may be as simple as a combination commonly-available fuel/oxidizer (FOX) mixtures initiated by an electrically-heated wire. The predictive knowledge of large scale explosive potential of FOX mixtures is incomplete. Predicting explosive potential from laboratory-scale analytical test data is desirable. Herein the explosive properties of fuel/oxidizer combinations (FOX) were measured at both the small scale (2 g) with bomb calorimetry for heat output and closed-vessel dynamic pressure rise and also on the large scale (5 kg) with high speed photography for detonation velocity and with piezoelectric pressure probes for TNT air blast equivalence. Potassium nitrate (KN), potassium chlorate (KC), potassium permanganate (KMnO4), potassium iodate (KIO3), ammonium nitrate (AN), and ammonium perchlorate (AP) were prepared with sucrose (Su) fuel, and KN, AP, and AN were prepared with aluminum (Al) fuel. The results were compared to each other as well as predictions from Cheetah thermochemical code in order to correlate detonation performance, particularly the ideality of detonation performance, with simple laboratory screening tests. Presented here are the results of around 60 explosive experiments which have become the first series of experiments at the URI explosives test facility to successfully field photon Doppler velocimetry (PDV) and ultra-high speed photography. The experiments outlined herein focus on homogeneous improvised explosives, namely hydrogen peroxide (HP) aqueous solutions fueled with ethanol (EtOH). These materials have been chosen as a template system for evaluation with time-resolved detonation diagnostics aimed at screening clandestine non-ideal explosive threat materials for detonable character even, and especially, in configurations below their critical diameter. The ‘galloping’ detonation instabilities of these materials have been captured on camera in the stoichiometric mixture of HP:EtOH in diameters from 1 to 2.6 inches; a steady detonation never formed. Reactive particle velocity waveforms for this mixture were measured by PDV through a PMMA pressure-maintaining window. These materials were subjected to both overdriven and underdriven configurations, and non-steady waveforms have been collected to monitor non-ideal explosives under these conditions i.e. inside the infinite diameter region of a range of different shock loading environments. Several mixtures of HP:EtOH have also been artificially doped with glass microballoons to study the ideality of this mixture in a heterogeneous regime. Successful detonations of heterogeneous HP:EtOH mixtures were observed using as low as 40% HP. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank our Ordinance Technician Allan Valliere for being so willing to help get these experiments done, rain, snow, or shine often with great inconvenience to him; a great deal of credit goes to him for the impressive frequency with which we’ve been able to get so many experiments done in such a short amount of time. I acknowledge the insight and guidance of Dr. James Kennedy and his valuable advice through the many obstacles encountered in this work. I would like to credit Dr. Tao Wei and Dr. Brian Chen with the many hours of instruction helping me get started with PDV. Our success fielding this optical technique is largely due to their generous collaboration in the early years of building the range; before their help, I had zero experience with fiber optics, time/frequency transformations, or the wave interaction mathematics necessary to understand the diagnostics. I would also like to acknowledge the two faithful companions who shared every day out at the Alton Jones test site with me, Ruger and Trig, and the family who waited so patiently and supportively for me to finish my degree. I would also like to thank my research team, both past and present, for the collaborative and friendly environment to which I quickly integrated in spite of being foreign to the area. I’d like to thank my advisors Jimmie Oxley and Jim Smith for the opportunity to build the Alton Jones test site; I could never have expected such an incredible opportunity. My personal relationship with the sovereign, holy, righteous, God Most High has saved my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. He meets me where I am, and fulfills His promise. He made me like a potter shapes a clay vessel, and His banner over me is Love. Please see: Proverbs 3:5, Isaiah 49:9-10, I John 3:11, and Psalms 73:21-28. iv PREFACE This dissertation has been prepared in manuscript format in accordance with the guidelines of the Graduate School of the University of Rhode Island. The research contained herein is separated into two manuscripts. The first manuscript, “Correlation of Thermal Properties and Explosive Performance of Fuel/Oxidizer Mixtures” is being submitted to the journal Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics. The second manuscript, “Characterization of Detonation Waveforms in Homogeneous Non-Ideal Explosives” will also be submitted for publication in the journal Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics. These experiments are the first two bodies of work to be published which directly relate to work from the new URI Outdoor Explosive Test Facility (OTF) which was being built with this very work in mind. Through the support of his advisors, the OTF was outfitted with a suite of ultra-high-speed diagnostics not previously known to the author or his research group. In establishing the application of these technologies the author experienced an uncanny amount of failure; this work represents over 4 years of work maturing the use of these technologies at URI. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... iv PREFACE ..................................................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ vi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................. xiv MANUSCRIPT 1……………………………………………………………………...1 Title Page: Fuel-Oxidizer Mixtures: A Lab and Field Study……………………....1 Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..2 1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………3 2 Experimental Methods……………………………………………………………..4 2.1 Sample Preparation for Calorimetry, DSC, and SDT………………………….4 2.2 Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)………………………………………5 2.3 Simultaneous DSC/TGA (SDT) ………………………………………………….5 2.4 Bomb Calorimetry with Pressure Transducer ………………………………….5 2.5 Sample Preparation for Detonation Diagnostics………………………………..7 2.6 Detonation Diagnostics…………………………………………………………...8 2.8 Predictive Tools………………………………………………………………….11 3 Results……………………………………………………………………………...12 3.1 Parr Bomb Results………………………………………………………………13 3.2 Detonation Testing………………………………………………………………16 vi 3.2.1 High-speed photography and detonation velocity…………………………16 3.2.2 Blast Pressure………………………………………………………………..20 3.3 Cheetah Thermochemical Predictions…………………………………………22 4 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………..23 4.1 General Discussion………………………………………………………………23 4.2 Experimental Agreement with Cheetah Predictions………………………….24 4.2.1 Cheetah Total Energy Detonation (TED)……………………………………24 4.2.2 Cheetah Detonation Velocity (Dv)……………………………………………26 4.3 Comparisons of Detonation Velocity to Lab Scale Analytical Tests…………28 4.3.1 Bomb Calorimetry Heat of Reaction (ΔHrxn)………………………………..28 4.3.2 Bomb Calorimeter Pressure Rise Rate………………………………………29 4.4 Air Blast Correlation with Laboratory Analytical Measurements…………..30 4.4.1 Bomb calorimeter heat of reaction…………………………………………...30 4.4.2: TNT Air Blast versus Pressure Rise Rate (dP/dt)………………………......32 4.4.3 TNT Air Blast Energy vs Bomb Calorimetry Heat of Reaction……………33 4.5 Doping of Potassium Nitrate-Sugar…………………………………………….34 4.6