Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Polymers and Crystalline Qualities on the Safety Performance of LLM-105-based PBXs under Dynamic Compression and Shear

In recent years, the safety of ammunition has been an issue that has received close attention. The determination of the factors that influence the ignition of various 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide (LLM-105)-based polymer bonded explosives (PBXs) under external stimuli is of great importance for the development of safe PBX formulations. In order to further understand such factors and response characteristics, dynamic compression and shear tests on PBXs containing fluorinated rubber, 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethene (FOX-7), polyethylene wax (PEW), and high quality or rough LLM-105 were conducted. A high speed camera, SEM, and XPS imaging were used to examine the recovered samples, variations in the structures of LLM-105 based-PBXs, and the surface chemical composition after compression and shear. For a given sample the ignition threshold in a shear test was generally lower than that in a compression test. We have also determined the factors causing decomposition. The ignition mechanism under dynamic compression and shear were helpful for developing better PBX formulations.