| Abstract: | An estimate of the detonation pressure of carbohydrate-metal composite explosives has been obtained experimentally by use of carbon resistor pressure gauges mounted in the wall of the confining tubes. The composite explosives were formulated from a pharmaceutical mixture of 10/90 nitroglyccrin/ß-lactose by weight, and was rendered detonable by inclusion of flaked aluminum and both flaked aluminum and ammonium perchlorate. The detonation pressure of the nitroglyccrin/ß-lactose mixture with 10 percent aluminum by weight was approximatcly 1.1 GPa. The incorporation of 30 percent ball-milled ammonium perchlorate to this formnlation increased the detonation pressure to 12.2 GPa. These pressures must be considered as estimates of the true detonation pressure, because of (a) the suspected non-ideality of the detonation state of these explosives, (b) the statistical nature of the response of the gauges, and (c) possible inconsistencies in the interpreatation of the gauge records. It is recommended that a number of gauges be used in a given experiment, and the results be averaged as one means of cireumventing the above difficulties. |
