Different Ignition Responses of Powdery and Bulky 1,3,5-Triamino-2,4,6-Trinitrobenzene (TATB) Based Polymer-bonded Explosives under Ultra-high Voltage Electrostatic Discharge

The electric spark induced ignition mechanism for explosives needs further study. The ignition of powdery and bulky TATB by electrostatic discharge (ESD) was investigated. Up to 200 kV ultra-high voltage ESD was applied to powdery and bulky explosives of two TATB-based polymer-bonded explosives (named PBX-1 and PBX-2). The results showed that the spark sensitivities of powdery and bulky explosives are extremely different for the same formulation. The 50% ignition voltages of powdery PBX-1 and PBX-2 were 10.8 kV and 8.5 kV, respectively, while the values for the bulky samples (tablets) were not less than 200 kV. Both heat and the electric field can be transmitted into the powdery samples, on the other hand only the electric field can be transmitted into the bulk samples. The electric field has a smaller contribution while the heat has a larger contribution to the ignition during an ESD, i.e., the thermal effect plays a main role in the ignition process. Our experimental results are in good agreement with recent results calculated by density functional theory.