Final Report: Technical Feasibility Study of an Effective Low-Toxicity
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FINAL REPORT Technical Feasibility Study of an Effective Low-toxicity Obscurant Material SERDP Project WP-2148 AUGUST 2012 Rutger Webb TNO Form Approved REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 15-08-2012 FINAL 04/2011 – 07/2012 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER W912HQ-11-C-0034 Technical feasibility study of an effective low-toxicity obscurant 5b. GRANT NUMBER material 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER WP-2148 Webb, Rutger 5e. TASK NUMBER Ramlal, Dinesh, R. Langenberg, Jan. P. 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER Alblas, Marcel. J. 032.31738 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER TNO Department of Energetic Materials, Lange Kleiweg 137 2288 GJ Rijswijk The Netherlands 9. SPONSORING / MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S ACRONYM(S) ADDRESS(ES) SERDP & ESTCP Program Offices SERDP 901 North Stuart Street, Suite 303 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT Arlington, VA 22203-1853 NUMBER(S) 12. DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Unlimited 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT The composition made were containing various amounts of NaClO3, cellulose, CaCO3 and Mg (from two different sources). From the laboratory scaled tests the composition named “11EM0745” was are the best performing composition made. When these compositions are compared to the benchmark obscurant compositions (HC smoke, red phosphorus smoke, and TPA smoke) it is concluded that the transmissions through the smoke of the new see-salt compositions are much higher compared to the HC and RP smoke, but lower compared to the TPA smoke. The smoke from developed compositions are less toxic than the HC, RP and TPA smokes. 15. SUBJECT TERMS obscurant smoke, pyrotechnic composition, new pyrotechnic composition formulation, safety study, transmission measurements, effectiveness, in vitro toxicity screening, Cultex, sea salt aerosol, electron microscope 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION 18. NUMBER 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE OF ABSTRACT OF PAGES PERSON : Mr. R. Webb a. REPORT b. ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE None 47 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER Unclass. Unclassified Unclassified (include area code) +31 88 86 61449 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 i This report was prepared under contract to the Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP). The publication of this report does not indicate endorsement by the Department of Defense, nor should the contents be construed as reflecting the official policy or position of the Department of Defense. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the Department of Defense. Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................................ ii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................................... iii List of Acronyms....................................................................................................................................................... v Executive summary .................................................................................................................................................. vi 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Work Package 1 – Selection of best candidate ‘Obscurant Aerosol Particulate’ ........................................ 3 2.1 Criteria used for selection ........................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Candidate ‘Obscurant Aerosol Particulates’ similar to sea-salt ....................................................................... 3 3 Work Package 2 – Select best candidate ‘Base Composition’ .................................................................... 5 3.1 Materials ................................................................................................................................................... 5 3.2 Thermodynamic calculations ....................................................................................................................... 6 4 Work Package 3 – Laboratory-scale tests ................................................................................................. 7 4.1 Materials ................................................................................................................................................... 7 4.2 Safety tests ................................................................................................................................................ 7 4.3 Smoke box tests ......................................................................................................................................... 9 4.4 Particle size and particle size distribution of smoke particles ........................................................................ 17 4.5 In vitro toxicity screening tests of obscurant compositions (CULTEX) ......................................................... 21 5 Work Package 04 – Proof of concept....................................................................................................... 27 6 Conclusions & Recommendations ........................................................................................................... 29 7 References .............................................................................................................................................. 30 Appendix A: Setting of the oscilloscope ................................................................................................................... 32 Appendix B: Scanning Electron Microscope Images ............................................................................................... 33 i List of Tables Table 1.1. Compositions based on the use of hygroscopic lithium-salts. p. 2 Table 3.1. Base compositions under investigation in this research. p. 5 Table 3.2. Supplier and identification numbers from the ingredients used in base composition. p. 6 Table 3.3. Thermodynamic calculations of the adiabatic temperature, oxygen balance and the combustion product under equilibrium conditions. p. 6 Table 4.1 Hexachloroethane (HC) smoke composition p. 7 Table 4.2 Terephthalic acid (TPA) smoke composition p. 7 Table 4.3 Test results of friction sensitivity for the sodium chloride based obscurant compositions p. 9 Table 4.4 Test results of impact sensitivity for the sodium chloride based obscurant compositions p. 9 Table 4.5 The average relative humidity and average temperature measured during the smoke box test of hexachloroethane (HC) and terephthalic acid (TPA) p. 15 Table 4.6 The average relative humidity and the average temperature at which the CULTEX® tests have been performed. p. 23 ii List of Figures Figure 4.1 BAM equipment for testing the friction sensitivity of compositions p. 8 Figure 4.2 BAM equipment for testing the impact sensitivity of compositions p. 8 Figure 4.3: Schematic illustration of experimental set-up (left) and a photo of the smoke box (right). p. 10 Figure 4.4 Experimental set-up of the smoke box during an experiment p. 11 Figure 4.5 Calibration curve obtained for sample 11EM0739. p. 14 Figure 4.6 Smoke production in terms of transmission for the conventional obscurant compositions hexachloroethane (HC), red phosphorus (RP) and terephthalic acid (TPA) p. 14 Figure 4.7 Mass extinction coefficients of the conventional obscurant compositions hexachloroethane (HC), red phosphorus (RP) and terephthalic acid (TPA) p. 15 Figure 4.8 Smoke production in terms of transmission of the sodium chloride based obscurant compositions p. 16 Figure 4.9 Mass extinction coefficients of the sodium chloride based obscurant compositions p. 17 Figure 4.10 FEI Nova NanoSem 650 at TNO p. 18 Figure 4.11 SEM image of the conventional obscurant composition HC. p. 19 Figure 4.12 SEM image of the sodium chloride based obscurant composition 11EM0745. p. 19 Figure 4.13 Average particle size & particle size distribution of smoke particles for the conventional obscurant composition HC p. 20 Figure 4.14 Average particle size & particle size distribution of smoke particles