NATS 1575 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Smokeless Powder, Explosive Material, Acetone Peroxide
21 May 2017
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Document Summary
Explosives are substances that undergo a rapid oxidation reaction with the production of large quantities of gases. It is this sudden buildup of gas pressure that constitutes the nature of an explosion. The speed at which explosives decompose permits their classification as high or low explosives. The most widely used explosives in the low-explosive group are black powder and smokeless powder. Black powder is a mixture of potassium or sodium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur. Smokeless powder consists of nitrated cotton (nitrocellulose) or nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose. Among the high explosives, primary explosives are ultra-sensitive to heat, shock, or friction and provide the major ingredients found in blasting caps or primers used to detonate other explosives. Secondary explosives are relatively insensitive to heat, shock, or friction and will normally burn rather than detonate if ignited in small quantities in the open air. This group comprises the majority of commercial and military blasting, such as dynamite,
