Mechanical Damage and Combustion of TNT and Composition-B

Abstract : Fracture damage was introduced into trinitrotoluene (TNT) and Composition-B (Comp-B) through uniaxial compression applied at controlled strain rates from 0.1 to 100 s-1. The mechanical response was measured with parameters that have been used to characterize the fracture response of gun propellant during its development over the last decade. The damaged high explosive was burned in a small closed bomb in an effort to characterize the fracture surface area that resulted from the uniaxial compression. However, the brittle nature of both the TNT and Comp-B, and the burning character of these materials prevented a completely successful characterization and correlation with the mechanical response. The brittle mechanical response produced wide scatter in the measured parameters, and the apparently erratic burning behavior of the TNT and Comp-B prevented accurate surface area determination from the damaged high explosive. There were some trends that were noted for the mechanical response as a function of strain rate, and an idea of the nature of the fracture damage was attained. However, the roles that fracture play in the violence of the response of high explosive materials to impact and combustion threats remains unclear.