Energetic Characteristics of HMX‐Based Explosives Containing LiH

Abstract

The high energy density compound octahydro‐1,3,5,7‐tetranitro‐1,3,5,7‐tetrazocine (HMX) and the strong exothermic compound LiH represent an excellent principal explosive and an active fuel, respectively. Herein, the energetic characteristics of HMX‐based explosives are explored by adding LiH as fuel additive. The detonation parameters of HMX‐based explosives containing LiH were tested with free‐field explosion experiments and compared with those of traditional TNT, HMX, and aluminized explosives. The results show that the explosives exhibit higher energy and present preferable explosion effect when LiH is added as an explosive ingredient. The improvement of impulse is more than 32.8 % at 2 m. The shock wave peak overpressure increases by almost 40 % at a distance of 3 m from detonation center specially for the explosive containing both LiH and Al additives. Elemental H and Li are expected to release tremendous energy to effectively improve the explosives instant damage power, but the detonation duration is shorter than that of Al‐containing mixed explosives, which may limit the advantage over Al in the impulse. Li2CO3 powder is the solid product of HMX/LiH, which explains the LiH oxidation during the explosion. The exothermic processes in the formation are the reason for the increased energy of HMX/LiH explosives. These results can provide guidance to a potential energetic system formed by HMX and LiH.

Investigation on Adsorption and Decomposition Properties of CL-20/FOX-7 Molecules on MgH2(110) Surface by First-Principles

“…In the last few decades, considerable efforts have been devoted to the investigation of metal hydrides [ 9 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ] as fuels in energetic materials. Among the various metal hydrides, MgH 2 has the advantages of high hydrogen capacity (7.6wt.%.…”

Study on Thermal Behaviour of AP/LiBH4 Energetic System

“…It refers to a comprehensive connection consisting of hundreds of chain reactions. According to the literature [41,42], NH 3 and HClO 4 are generated firstly via proton transference for AP decomposition at low temperature (Eq. (2)).…”

“…However, the direct preparation of single explosive is confronted with more and more technical difficulty. On the contrary, mixed explosive has proved a key approach to improve explosion energy by designing and exploring oxidant-fuel energetic systems, and represents an important research direction of weapon systems [1][2][3][4][5]. Owing to the strong reactivity and high combustion heat, metal hydrides attract great attention as candidates of fuel additives in energetic system for several decades.…”

AlH3 as High-Energy Fuels for Solid Propellants: Synthesis, Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Stabilization

“…In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to evaluate the potential of hydrides as energy fuels for solid propellants, including aluminum hydride (AlH 3 ) [1][2][3], lithium hydride (LiH) [4], magnesium hydride (MgH 2 ) [5,6], titanium hydride (TiH 2 ) [7,8], and ammonia borane (NH 3 BH 3 ) [9]. Table 1 summarizes the hydrogen storage properties of common metal hydrides.…”