Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) is a commonly used high explosive (HE) in detonators. Often, surrogate or “mock” materials are used in place of HE for mechanical tests, proofing out equipment, or developing new diagnostics. However, there is no commonly accepted mock for PETN. A good mock should match at least one physical property of the target material, and ideally mimic multiple thermal and mechanical properties. Here, we investigate several molecular crystals to evaluate their efficacy in mocking PETN density, melting point, elastic modulus, hardness, plastic deformation, and fracture behavior. Materials were tested with a combination of calorimetry and nanoindentation. Two materials, 2,4,6-trifluorobenzoic acid (246 TFBA) and mesoerythritol, were downselected for detailed indentation study after the initial round of screening experiments, both were found to mimic PETN mechanical behavior quite well, 246 TFBA closer to PETN in most properties (hardness, modulus, and density) than erythritol, but erythritol having advantages in relative cost and matching the onset of yield. Depending on the desired implementation of the mock, one material may be preferred over the other, but both have potential as generic mocks for PETN. Nanoindentation is demonstrated as a versatile tool to provide rapid screening of these materials’ mechanical properties.
Abstract. Experiments were performed using a copper antenna to observe transient electric fields generated by shocked Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), which behaves as a piezoelectric explosive. PETN pellets were shocked using a detonator and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as shock attenuation. The amount of attenuation was varied until an initiation threshold was found to increase the probability of a deflagration-to-detonation (DDT) transition occurring. These experiments showed distinct transient shifts in frequency over the duration of the experiments. Correlation was observed between certain shifts in frequency and if the PETN pellet detonated.
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