The effect of wax coating, aluminum and ammonium perchlorate on impact sensitivity of HMX

Interaction of 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (HMX)/ammonium perchlorate (AP) and its effect on mechanical sensitivity may result in some restrictions for the application of AP/HMX system in high energetic weapon system. In this work, impact sensitivity test is used to study the effects of wax coating of HMX, AP and aluminum (Al) powder on sensitivity properties of HMX/AP/Al mixtures. Thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) analysis has been developed to investigate the mechanism of interaction between HMX and AP during the course of thermal decomposition of HMX/AP/Al mixtures. The results show that severe interaction effect exists between AP and HMX, which causes the impact sensitivity (H50) to become smaller. The impact energy (E50) of mixture can be improved under the circumstances of effective separating HMX from AP by surface coating with Wax. AP may firstly engender low-temperature decomposition under the circumstance of external heat or mechanical impact, which causes the exothermic peak of HMX forward shift about 28 °C. The gaseous product releasing from thermal decomposition of HMX accelerates further decomposition of AP. For HMX/AP composite system, the interactive catalysis effect between AP and HMX can be eliminated mostly by adding a great deal of Al powder (i.e. above 30%).