The effect of different additives on safety manipulation of cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitrooctahydroimidazo-[4,5-d]imidazole (BCHMX)

Abstract

In this work, new cyclic nitramine named cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitrooctahydroimidazo-[4,5-d]imidazole (BCHMX) was premixed with insensitive explosives (3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one, NTO and1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethene, FOX) and with two cyclic nitramines (1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane, RDXand, 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane, HMX) and bonded by polydimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) binder.Impact and friction sensitivities were evaluated. Detonation velocity was measured and the detonationcharacteristics were calculated by EXPLO 5 thermodynamic code. Relative explosive strength wasdetermined by using the ballistic mortar test. The results showed a great positive influence on the sensitivityof BCHMX due to the addition of the insensitive explosive (NTO, FOX-7) however the performance wasdecreased. On the other side, mixing the nitramines improved the performance with reduction of BCHMXsensitivity. PDMS binder succeed to decrease the sensitivity of all the studied mixtures.