HEMs: The Facet of Explosive Performance

This chapter starts with the explanation of spontaneity of explosions using free energy concept followed by the kinetic aspects of explosive decomposition. The relationship between the molecular structure and explosive properties is discussed. Other important topics discussed are the two aspects of explosive performance, namely shock effect and gas expansion effect, concept of explosive train, performance of military explosives like fragmentation, scabbing and shaped charge effect, blast effect, industrial explosives, and the processing of explosives.