Detonation Reaction Zone and Acceleration Ability of a TKX-50 Based Polymer Bonded Explosive

Previous studies on detonation of the Dihydroxylammonium 5,5′-bistetrazole-1,1′-diolate (TKX-50), an attractive energetic ionic salt (EIS), were mainly based on thermodynamic codes or small-scale tests, the available experimental data are not adequate to fully understand detonation characteristics of this new kind of energetic material. This article gives an experimental investigation on detonation reaction zone (DRZ) and acceleration ability of a TKX-50 based Polymer Bonded eXplosive (PBX), PBX-TKX-50. The detonation properties of two traditional explosives: (i)PBX-HMX, an HMX-based PBX, (ii) PBX-RDX, an RDX-based PBX, both of which contain the energetic compounds and binder in the same mass ratio as PBX-TKX-50, are also measured for a comparative analysis. The results show that PBX-TKX-50 has the highest detonation velocity and detonation pressure, nevertheless the slowest reaction rate within detonation reaction zone, the longest reaction time and DRZ length among the three PBX samples. Despite its prominent detonation velocity and detonation pressure, the acceleration ability of PBX-TKX-50 is lower than PBX-RDX. The Jones-Wilkins-Lee (JWL) equation of state for detonation products calibrated by the cylinder expansion test has severely overestimated the axial acceleration ability of PBX-TKX-50 in the numerical simulation of Disc Acceleration eXperiment (DAX), which may due to the fact that remarkable confinement effect and/or geometry effect exist in detonation of the EIS based sample. The mechanisms behind these detonation behaviors are still under investigation in our ongoing studies.