Explosive and propellants Flashcards
What components make up guncotton?
NC, Nitric Acid and Cotton Fibres
What was added to picric acid explosives to increase the effectiveness?
Tetryl as a booster for amplification
What are the ingredients for greek fire?
Sulphur, pitch, naphtha
What are the pyrotechnic groups?
Illum Compositions Smoke Compositions Signal Compositions Delay Compositions Tracer Compositions Priming Compositions Simulators Pyromechanics
What are the effects of pyrotechnics?
Heat
Light
Smoke
Noise
What is added to make pyrotechnic colours?
Red- Strontium nitrate Yellow- Sodium nitrate Green- Barium nitrate Orange- Calcium nitrate Blue- Copper carbonate White- Barium and potassium mixture
What are the characteristic of primer compositions?
- Easy to ignite
- Generate high heat
- Not burn to quickly or violently
- Produce some solid products of combustion
- Be compatible with the mixtures used
Describe Primary Explosive?
A substance or mixture of substances used to initiate a detonation or a burning reaction
What are the types of explosive initiators?
Distruptive- Detonators
Igniferous- Igniters
What colour produces red smoke?
Strontium nitrate
What does ballisite consist of?
Nitroclycerine, nitrocellulose, camphor (wax)
What are the 4 types of propellant?
Single Based propellant- NC
Double based propellant- NC and NG
Triple Base propellant- NC, NG and Nitro Guanadine (Picrite) - NGu or NQ
Composite based propellant
Flash receptive detonators are 1 type of explosive, what are 4 others?
- Flash receptive detonators
- Stab igniters and detonators
- Percussion igniters
- Hot bridge wire igniters and detonators
- Exploding bridge wire detonators
Give an example of some low explosives?
- Gunpowder
- Pyrotechnics
- Propellant
Give an example of some high explosive?
Tetryl, Comp B, RDX, CE, PE4, C4, PETN, TR1, HMX, TNT
What is the compositon of “COMP B”?
RDX- 59.5%
TNT- 39.5%
WAX- 1%
What purposes do additives have in high explosives?
1- Decrease Sensitivity 2- Increase Sensitivity 3- Increase Moldability 4- Increase Stability 5- Increase Blast Effect
Caps and primers contain 3 primary components what are they?
1- The primary explosive
2- The oxidiser
3- The sensitiser
What is the purpose of a dark ignition tracer?
- To avoid observation of exact location of weapon
- To avoid dazzling the gun layers at night when fired from multiple/automatic weapons.
What are the design requirements for illumination?
- Withstand firing forces
- Must have the correct luminosity
- Must burn for the correct time
What are the ideal properties for smoke?
- Immediate in effect
- Unaffected as far as possible by weather
- Persistent
- Non anti personal
- Non incendiary