Chemistry of Detonations. IV. Evaluation of a Simple Predictional Method for Detonation Velocities of C–H–N–O Explosives

Abstract

Measured detonation velocities of a variety of C–H–N–O explosives agree with values predicted from the equation ${\text{D\hspace{0.17em}=\hspace{0.17em}1.01φ}}^{\text{1\hspace{0.17em}/\hspace{0.17em}2}}{\text{(1\hspace{0.17em}+\hspace{0.17em}1.30ρ}}_0)$ , where ${\mathrm{\phi \hspace{0.17em}=\hspace{0.17em}NM}}^{\text{1\hspace{0.17em}/\hspace{0.17em}2}}{Q}^{\text{1\hspace{0.17em}/\hspace{0.17em}2}}$ , with an average absolute error of ∼1%. The H₂O–CO₂ arbitrary assumption of detonation product compositions is used in the calculation of $N$ , the number of moles of detonation gases per gram of explosive; $M$ , the average molecular weight of these gases; and $Q$ , the chemical energy of the detonation reaction.