This unique book investigates the synthesis, kinetics, and thermal decomposition properties and processing of energy-producing materials used in propellants, explosives, pyrotechnic, and gas-generating compositions. Thermal Decomposition and Combustion of Explosives and Propellants provides several mechanisms and stages for the thermal deco

This unique book investigates the synthesis, kinetics, and thermal decomposition properties and processing of energy-producing materials used in propellants, explosives, pyrotechnic, and gas-generating compositions. Thermal Decomposition and Combustion of Explosives and Propellants provides several mechanisms and stages for the thermal decomposition and combustion reactions of most flammable compounds and their mixtures, such asaliphatic and aromatic nitrocompounds, nitramines, nitroesters, organic azides, furazanes, tetrazols, difluoroamines, polynitrous heterocycles, and onium salts. The authors examine the classic problem of the dependence of explosive activity on molecular structure, using applications to predict the stability, compatibility, and the stabilization of explosives and propellant components. They also offer experimental results examining factors such as subsurface decomposition, evaporation, and dispersion of materials, which can be used to control combustion of condensed systems. Providing several approaches to stability, safety, and controlled combustion of flammable substances, Thermal Decomposition and Combustion of Explosives and Propellants is a multi-dimensional resource for graduate students, researchers and professionals interested in chemical kinetics, the combustion and synthesis of high-energy materials, criminal forensics, and the field of explosives, powders, and solid rocket propellants.

Much attention in the book is given to experimental works of the recent period conducted under conditions which allow using results of an experiment as material for the creation of a theory and its check. The first chapter is devoted to the general characteristic of basic forms of chemical conversion of explosives and to main types of explosives with respect to composition, chemical structure and capability of stable combustion, and also to detonation. The second chapter examines the slow chemical conversion of explosives under the effect of increased temperature. The third chapter discusses experimental data on the stable combustion of explosives. Basic theories of combustion are examined, a correlation of experimental data with conclusions is produced in reference to various types of explosives (volatile, non-volatile and quick-burning). An account of the theory of the stability of combustion is given in the fifth chapter. Chapter six examines specific cases of the detonation and combustion of explosives in various conditions (intense heating, effect of light and others). (Author).

This book essentially presents a review and summary of experimental and theoretical findings obtained in the field of combustion processes in explosives. The author, who died before completing his review of the book for publication, was one of the foremost Soviet specialists in the field, and many of the findings and basic principles cited in the book are either his or those of his school. This is particularly true with respect to the material on the theory of combustion and thermal disintegration of secondary explosives, and the analysis of critical phenomena and to the physical essence of the difference between the properties of a number of explosives. Briefly summarized, the book is concerned with the principal forms of explosives and their capacity for chemical conversion (i.e., stable combustion, nonsteady state combustion, and detonation), the main problems of chemical kinetics in the initiation and development of an explosion as a function of changes in temperature, and the slow combustion of (principally) condensed substances. The book is intended for students, engineers and scientific workers specializing in physical chemistry and chemistry. (Author).

Modern energetic materials include explosives, blasting powders, pyrotechnic m- tures and rocket propellants [1, 2]. The study of high-temperature decomposition of condensed phases of propellants and their components (liquid, solid and hybrid) is currently of special importance for the development of space-system engineering [3, 4]. To better understand the burning mechanisms (stationary, nonstationary, - steady) of composite solid propellants and their components, information about the macrokinetics of their high-temperature decomposition is required [5]. To be able to evaluate the ignition parameters and conditions of safe handling of heat-affected explosives, one needs to know the kinetic constants of their high-temperature - composition. The development of new composite solid propellants characterized by high performance characteristics (high burning rates, high thermal stability, stability to intrachamber perturbations, and other aspects) is not possible without quanti- tive data on the high-temperature decomposition of composite solid propellants and their components [6]. The same reasons have resulted in signi?cant theoretical and practical interest in the high-temperature decomposition of components of hybrid propellants. It is known that hybrid propellants have not been used very widely due to the low bu- ing (pyrolysis) rates of the polymer blocks in the combustion chambers of hybrid rocket engines. To increase the burning rates it is necessary to obtain information about their relationships to the corresponding kinetic and thermophysical prop- ties of the fuels.

Written for students with no previous knowledge of explosives, this concise, easy-to-read book outlines the basic principles needed to understand the chemical mechanisms of explosions.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is an incredible place. It was conceived and born amidst the most desperate of circumstances. It attracted some of the most brilliant minds, the most innovative entrepreneurs, and the most c- ative tinkerers of that generation. Out of that milieu emerged physics and engineering that beforehand was either unimagined, or thought to be f- tasy. One of the ?elds essentially invented during those years was the science of precision high explosives. Before 1942, explosives were used in munitions and commercial pursuits that demanded proper chemistry and con?nement for the necessary e?ect, but little else. The needs and requirements of the Manhattan project were of a much more precise and speci?c nature. Spatial and temporal speci?cations were reduced from centimeters and milliseconds to micrometers and nanoseconds. New theory and computational tools were required along with a raft of new experimental techniques and novel ways of interpreting the results. Over the next 40 years, the emphasis was on higher energy in smaller packages, more precise initiation schemes, better and safer formulations, and greater accuracy in forecasting performance. Researchers from many institutions began working in the emerging and expanding ?eld. In the midst of all of the work and progress in precision initiation and scienti?c study, in the early 1960s, papers began to appear detailing the ?rst quantitative studies of the transition from de?agration to detonation (DDT), ?rst in cast, then in pressed explosives, and ?nally in propellants.