Detonation Measurements on Damaged LX‐04

We have applied thermal insults on LX‐04 at 185 °C and found that the material expanded significantly, resulting in a bulk density reduction of 12%. Subsequent detonation experiments (three cylinder tests) were conducted on the thermally damaged LX‐04 samples and pristine low‐density LX‐04 samples and the results showed that the fractions reacted were close to 1.0. The thermally damaged LX‐04 and pristine low‐density LX‐04 showed detonation velocities of 7.7–7.8 mm μs⁻¹, significantly lower than that (8.5 mm μs⁻¹) of pristine high‐density LX‐04. Detonation energy densities for the damaged LX‐04, low‐density pristine LX‐04, and hot cylinder shot of LX‐04 were 6.48, 6.62, and 6.58 kJ cm⁻³, respectively, lower than the detonation energy density of 8.11 kJ cm⁻³ for the high density pristine LX‐04. The break‐out curves for the detonation fronts showed that the damaged LX‐04 had longer edge lags than the high density pristine LX‐04, indicating that the damaged explosive is less ideal.