Ammonium nitrate, which is intended for use as an oxidizer in explosives, is manufactured in the form of porous prills. The prills can absorb liquid carbonaceous fuel to produce ANFO (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil). Researches of other authors showed that properties of ammonium nitrate prills could determine the physical stability and detonation characteristics of ANFO. We determined some physical characteristics of low density ammonium nitrate prills. They included bulk density, apparent density, size distribution, oil absorption and structure examinations by scanning electron microscopy. In our study we attempted to show some correlation between the physical properties of porous prilled AN and the detonation characteristics of ANFO mixtures with energetic material additives: demilitarized double base propellants of high nitroglycerine content and trinitrotoluene. All the propellants were cut. Investigated explosive mixtures contained 20, 40 and 60% of the additives. Some parameters of the explosives were calculated by thermodynamic code. We measured velocity of detonation and intensity of blast waves (peak blast overpressures) generated by the explosion of the mixtures. Positive phase impulses were also calculated. The results showed that ANFO could improve its detonation characteristics by the addition of propellant of high detonation velocity.
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