Sensitivity Testing of RDX/Aluminum Powdered Explosive Mixtures for the Improved Dispersed Explosives (IDX) Project

Abstract : The task reported on here was performed for the Belvoir Research, Development and Engineering Command, and is a portion of a significant effort in the area of Explosives Mine Countermeasures. The goal is to develop a weapon system capable of clearing a path 8m wide by 100m long through a minefield, while under enemy fire. A further consideration is the requirement that the weapon system be relatively invulnerable to all of the hazards of the battlefield, that it not cause injury or damage to friendly forces, and that it survive sufficiently long to perform its function. The weapon system under development employs the high explosive, cyclotrimethylene trinitramine (RDX), in two particle sizes (Classes 3 and 5), mixed dry with flaked aluminum, as the active ingredients. These materials are explosively disseminated into the atmosphere, and allowed to distribute themselves under the forces of gravity and aerodynamic drag, into a ground layer and an atmospheric concentration gradient with a maximum at the ground surface. The airborne cloud is initiated, and the reaction wave initiates the ground layer. The resulting pressure initiates the mines. This task was defined to quantify the sensitivities of the formulations employed, and to provide some direction in defining the packaging configuration of the final weapon system.