Performance and Detonation Characteristics of Polyurethane Matrix Bonded Attractive Nitramines

Several cast-cured plastic bonded explosives (PBXs) based on cyclic nitramines bonded by a polyurethane matrix have been prepared and studied. The nitramines were ε-CL20 (ε-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane, ε-HNIW), BCHMX (bicyclo-HMX, cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitro-octahydroimidazo-[4,5-d]imidazole), RDX (1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane) and HMX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetraazacyclooctane). The detonation velocities were measured experimentally. The brisance of the prepared compositions was determined by the Kast method. The penetration performance of shaped charges filled with the prepared compositions was measured experimentally. The detonation parameters of the studied compositions and the individual explosives were calculated using the EXPLO5 thermodynamic code. It was concluded that CL20-HTPB has the highest detonation characteristics and performance of all of the prepared PBXs. BCHMX-HTPB is an interesting PBX with performance and detonation characteristics higher than those of RDX-HTPB. A linear relationship between the detonation pressures of the prepared PBXs and their performances in terms of the explosive brisance was observed; while the penetration depths formed by the shaped charge jets depended on the Gurney velocity of the studied PBXs samples.