Reduced Sensitivity RDX (RS-RDX): Effects of crystal quality and shape on the shock sensitivity of RS-RDX based PBXN-109 formulation

摘要

This presentation provides the information on new Reduced Sensitivity RDX (RS-RDX) developed by NIPPON KOKI CO., LTD., and the data on the effects of crystal quality and shape on the shock sensitivity of cast cured plastic bonded explosive (PBX) formulation based on RS-RDX. NIPPON KOKI CO., LTD. has produced RDX (Type I) by Woolwich process during more than 40 years. Recently, we have succeeded to produce ultra-pure high quality RDX crystals using a certain recrystallization process.RS-RDX crystals are high quality crystals which have virtually no impurities and internal defects in their crystal. Large Scale Gap Test (LSGT) was performed for PBXN-109 formulation. PBX formulation based on RS-RDX was much less sensitive than PBX formulation based on standard RDX. It was demonstrated that RS-RDX developed by NIPPON KOKI CO., LTD. had properties similar to RS-RDX produced by other manufacturers.To investigate the effects of crystal shape on the shock sensitivity of PBXN-109 formulation based on RS-RDX, two types of RS-RDX were produced; one type of RS-RDX had spherical shape and the other type had polyhedral (with clear edged) shape. As the results of LSGT, PBX formulation based on spherical RS-RDX was less sensitive than that based on polyhedral RS-RDX. But both PBX formulations were much less sensitive than standard RDX based PBX formulation. It was shown that the sensitivity of PBX formulation based on RS-RDX was influenced not only by crystal quality of RDX but also by crystal shape.