Improving ANFO: Effect of Additives and Ammonium Nitrate Morphology on Detonation Parameters

Fabin, Magdalena; Jarosz, Tomasz

doi:10.3390/ma14195745

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…The conducted laboratory tests are to provide initial research material to estimate the time that-in certain conditions-is at the rescuers' disposal between the fire occurrence and the potential spontaneous formation of an explosive in the fire environment. This may increase the safety of rescuers and bystanders in the event of fires in facilities containing polyethylene, polypropylene [10], polyurethane [11], or other polymers, such as polyamides, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate) [12], dusts of organic origin [28], silicon dioxide [29], and even soybean oil [30], as well as other components which have the potential to generate-in an uncontrolled manner-an explosive similar to ANFO. This similarity is based not only on the analogous chemical structure of the given organic substance in the mixture, but also on the comparable course of the decomposition reaction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explosion Risks during Firefighting Operations in Storage Rooms and the Transport of Ammonium Nitrate-Based Fertilizers

2022

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Ammonium nitrate (AN) is a strong oxidizer that undergoes phase transitions and thermal decomposition at relatively low temperatures. This—as verified by historical facts—constitutes a challenge for the fire department during rescue operations. AN is also a highly reactive material widely used for the production of, i.a., fertilizers and explosives. The latter are popular not only in military applications but also in industrial ones, such as mining. They include ammonites and amatols utilized in coal mining, as well as Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil (ANFO) utilized in, i.a., rock mining. As a simple and cheap material, ANFO also tends to be used by terrorists. The spontaneous formation of an AN and polymers mixture—similar to ANFO in terms of composition and explosion force—was observed in fire conditions during previous research. At individual stages (from creation to exploitation), AN often comes into direct contact with various polymers. Polyolefins, in particular polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), are among the most popular groups of such materials. They are used for the production of, i.a., foil packaging and flexible intermediate bulk containers for the storage and transport of fertilizers. Despite the frequent mutual contact of these materials, there is little information in the literature on the interaction of AN and its polymer-made packaging in fire conditions. For this reason, it was decided to conduct a series of thermal analyses using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) to study the material behavior under the influence of high temperature. As it turns out in practice, the spontaneous formation of a mixture similar to ANFO—in terms of composition and explosion force—can be observed in fire conditions. Due to the results indicating a potentially explosive course of the reaction, laboratory tests on the macro scale were also carried out. The performed observations show that it may be necessary to create a procedure containing several different test methods in order to predict a mixture’s behavior during a fire and to define the appropriate guidelines for firefighting teams. Such guidelines would enable firefighters to prepare the right equipment during a firefighting operation and to develop a strategy based on the observed course of events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explosion Risks during Firefighting Operations in Storage Rooms and the Transport of Ammonium Nitrate-Based Fertilizers

2022

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“…Numerous research studies are devoted to determining the factors that impact the detonation properties of ANFO. The influence of AN prills (Biessikirski et al, 2020;Buczkowski & Zygmunt, 2011;Fabin & Jarosz, 2021;Miyake et al, 2001;Zygmunt & Buczkowski, 2007), the density and charge diameter (Catanach & Hill, 2003) the way of initiation (Bohanek et al, 2013;Žganec et al, 2016) and the charge temperature (Dobrilović et al, 2014) on the detonation parameters have been reported. Some authors have tried to improve the detonation properties of ANFO by adding aluminium (Maranda et al, 2011;Zygmunt, 2009) charcoal (Atlagic et al, 2020), carbon black (Izato et al, 2013), zeolite, and others (Kuterasiński et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Confining Materials on Detonation Parameters of Anfo Explosive

Bohanek,

Sućeska,

Dobrilović

et al. 2024

MGPB

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Due to the low manufacturing cost and ease of handling, ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) is one of the most popular mining explosives. ANFO explosive is a typical representative of non-ideal explosives, which means that its detonation properties are strongly dependent on the charge diameter and the existence and properties of the confinement. In this work, the effect of different confining materials on the detonation properties of ANFO explosive is studied experimentally, and by hydrocode simulation by varying charge diameter, and the type and thickness of the confining materials. The results show that, along with the diameter of the charge, density and thickness of the confining material have a key impact on the detonation properties. An empirical confinement model, applicable in the range 0.3 < mC/mE < 15, is proposed. The model enables the estimation of detonation velocity of confined ANFO charges with a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 14.25%.

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“…ANFO is commonly applied as a mining and civil engineering explosive due to the relatively low cost of its manufacturing process and simplicity of production. Moreover, the vast possibility of adjusting ANFO's blasting properties by adding additives [5][6][7], adjusting the content between AN-PP and FO [8], or applying various types of FO [9][10][11] is a significant advantage of ANFO. On the other hand, ANFO is classified as a nonideal explosive material owing to significant differences between the measured values and predicted blasting properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the Nano-Iron Oxide Adsorption-Enhanced Microstructured Charcoal Additives on the ANFO’s Properties

Biessikirski,

Gotovac Atlagić,

Pytlik

et al. 2024

Energies

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The article presents the results of the third research stage on the potential microstructured charcoal additives in ANFO. The charcoal powder was liquid adsorption-treated with Fe in various ratios. Adding MC-Fe to ANFO changed the exothermic peak’s position from ca. 280 °C to 250 °C due to lower activation energy, which influenced the kinetics of the reaction. Bruceton’s test indicated that the MC-Fe addition to ANFO resulted in ca. 10% lower initiation energy in comparison with pure ANFO. However, the energy level did not influence the potential applicability of the additives. The fumes analysis indicated a lower concentration of CO for all tested samples; however, the concentration of NOx rose. The thermodynamic calculations confirmed the experimental results, which could be explained by the increased positive oxygen balance. Moreover, all analyses showed that the most promising blasting properties referred to the ANFO sample containing the microstructured charcoal additive of a C:Fe ratio of 4:1. Therefore, further research will be dedicated to advanced studies between the chemical composition of this specific ANFO sample and its physicochemical and blasting properties.

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Improving ANFO: Effect of Additives and Ammonium Nitrate Morphology on Detonation Parameters

Cited by 14 publications

References 34 publications

Explosion Risks during Firefighting Operations in Storage Rooms and the Transport of Ammonium Nitrate-Based Fertilizers

Explosion Risks during Firefighting Operations in Storage Rooms and the Transport of Ammonium Nitrate-Based Fertilizers

Influence of Confining Materials on Detonation Parameters of Anfo Explosive

Influence of the Nano-Iron Oxide Adsorption-Enhanced Microstructured Charcoal Additives on the ANFO’s Properties

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