On Calculation of Oxygen Balance of Multicomponent Thermobaric Explosive Substance

Abstract

Most modern military confrontations take place near or directly in inhabited area. The use in such conditions of munition (warheads) which hit typical targets based on fragmentation (high-explosive) or cumulative action is impractical due to insufficient “selectivity” of hitting targets with such munition. At present, modern world tendency is the development of the latest munition (warheads) with increased properties of “destruction selectivity”. One of the directions is the development of munition based on thermobaric explosives. Such munitions can cause maximum damage due to high temperature and the impact of a shock wave with a low level of collateral damage, since thermobaric munition, especially in the open area, have a clearly defined or even limited area of effective damage, which determines the significance of their further development.
 Since modern thermobaric explosives include a large number of chemical elements (including chemically active metals), there is a need to calculate the physical balance of oxygen and oxygen coefficient to take into account the physical characteristics of modern multicomponent thermobaric explosives. The oxygen balance of multicomponent thermobaric explosives largely determines the nature of the reaction of its explosive transformation, i.e the composition of the explosive products and, consequently, the value of thermodynamic characteristics such as heat, temperature, volume and pressure of gas-like explosive products.
 The calculated ratio and coefficients for complex multicomponent thermobaric explosives should be calculated during the development of explosives, taking into account the composition of components and elements and their possible chemical reactions during the explosion. The abovementioned improved calculations of oxygen balance and oxygen coefficient of thermobaric explosives, which include aluminum, allows taking into account the physical characteristics of destruction of typical targets by thermobaric munitions.