Investigating the deflagration to detonation transition in LLM-105 and RX-55-DQ using high confinement as a function of density

• Main Authors: Strickland, Shawn L., Vandersall, Kevin S., DeHaven, Martin R.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Confinement; Deflagration; Deformation; Density; Detonation; Extinguishing; HMX; Low carbon steels; Steel tubes; TATB
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5044994

The potential for deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) in LLM-105 and RX-55-DQ (94/6 LLM-105/Viton) has been investigated as a function of loading density using high confinement tubes. The high confinement arrangement uses a 76 mm outer diameter by 25 mm inner diameter mild steel tube 320 mm in length with 25 mm thick mild steel end caps ignited using a thermite igniter and was loaded with samples of varying densities. None of the experiments showed a transition to detonation over the entire length with non-violent burning or extinguishing of the burning observed. The hand packed RX-55-DQ molding powder or neat LLM-105 (∼1.1 g/cm3) burned nearly completely and vented non-violently by deforming or splitting the end caps. The RX-55-DQ was tested at higher densities with 1.35 g/cm3 resulting in a burning reaction on the 2nd attempt that fractured the end cap while the 1.85 g/cm3 resulted in the burning reaction extinguishing in the first ∼15 mm on the 2nd attempt. This work will outline the testing details, present the results, and compare them to the relatively high binder content HMX-based LX-04 (85% HMX and 15% Viton) and ultra-fine TATB results tested under similar confinement.