Time-Temperature Analysis, DMA and Compression in PBXs

The mechanical response of plastic-bonded explosives (PBXs) is highly complex and depends on a number of factors including, but not limited to temperature, strain rate and binders. In this work, we have measured and analyzed the mechanical properties of LX-14, which contains 95.5 wt% HMX (octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine) and 4.5 wt% Estane 5702, with no additional plasticizer. We are interested to compare LX-14 with PBX 9501 (95 wt% HMX, 2.5 wt% Estane 5703 and 2.5 wt% nitroplasticizer), which has a relatively high content of plasticizer. The measurements span a wide range of strain rates and temperatures. We have applied time-temperature analysis on the LX-14 mechanical properties, i.e. dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) measurements and quasi-static uniaxial compression to form satisfactory master curves, and these data are compared with those from PBX 9501. A unique inhomogeneity is observed in the LX-14 compression data as a function of the specimen location.