Flame spread across surfaces of PBX 9501

There is little flame spread data for homogeneous energetic materials and no data for nitramines. We report the results of flame spread experiments of PBX 9501 (HMX (cyclotetramethylenetetranitramine) based explosive). The horizontal flame spread rate, Sf, is of the same order of magnitude as normal deflagration and varies nearly as the square root of pressure, as our scaling analysis presented here predicts. In the vertical orientation, the flame propagation downward was observed to be slightly faster than horizontal flame spread, presumably because of the melt layer flowing downward on the sample. In an accident scenario, a charge may be fractured or the surface roughened. Consequently, we also examined the effect of roughness. Minor roughness created by explosives machining was found to have a negligible affect on flame spread. However, more significant roughness can increase the rate between two and three times over normal flame spread for the conditions considered here. In addition we examine the effect of sample edges and configuration. Corners result in more favorable heat loss and therefore affect flame spread rate. We argue that the increased spread rate on edges and rough surfaces is because of favorable heat transfer convergence.