Correlation between shock sensitivity of nitramine energetic compounds based on small-scale gap test and their electric spark sensitivity

Electric spark sensitivity and shock sensitivity based small-scale gap test for nitramine energetic compounds are two important sensitivity parameters, which are needed for assessment of their safety in working places. A novel method is introduced for reliable prediction of electric spark or shock sensitivity of a desired nitramine energetic compound when reliable data for one of the sensitivity is available. A novel correlation with a high value of correlation coefficient (R2=0.998) is derived between electric spark and shock sensitivities of 20 cyclic and acyclic nitramines. For these nitramines, the predicted results of electric spark sensitivities of the novel model are compared with two of the best available models. The root-mean-square (rms) and maximum deviations of the new model are 0.20 and 0.51 J, respectively, which are much less than two comparative methods. The reliability of the new method for prediction of electric spark sensitivity of further 14 nitramines is also compared with one of the best available methods, where the measured electric spark or shock sensitivities were not available in literature.