Application and properties of aluminum in primary and secondary explosives

Aluminum is an easily available and cheap material, which is widely used in military and civil industries, e.g. in space technology, explosion welding, mining, production of oil and natural gas, manufacture of airbags. Primary and secondary explosives containing aluminum are described in this part of the work. Aluminum is added to high explosives of different shapes and sizes. These parameters influence inter alia detonation velocity (D), explosion heat, detonation pressure, pressure impulse and thermal stability. Detonation parameters of high explosive (HE) containing aluminum have been determined for binary systems consisting of high explosive or oxidizer and aluminum, plastic bonded explosives (PBX), melt cast explosives, thermobaric explosives (TBX), ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO). Aluminum causes different effects on detonation velocity and explosion heat depending on the type of high explosive in binary systems. The dependence of the aluminum content in a mixture with ammonium nitrate with detonation velocity increased for an aluminum range from 0 to 10%, changed little between 10 and 16% of aluminum added and decreased from 16 to 40% of the aluminum content. For an aluminum content higher than 40%, the detonation process was not observed. The performance of explosives can be determined by the shock wave intensity. An increase in the pressure impulse made Al particle react with gaseous products and the air behind the front of detonation wave. The addition of aluminum also influences the thermal stability of high explosive materials.