reply to post by turbofan
Turbo,
This is the third time I have explained this to you. Once again, slow and easy.......
Get out your copy of the holy paper and look at figure 30. Now I will explain what you are looking at. Note the four compounds on the left. Three are
high explosives and one is thermite. All react in the absence of air and their energies are calculated that way. The energies are shown per unit
volume [red bars] and per unit weight [blue bars.] These are theoretical values. We will compare the energies per unit weight of these samples [blue
bars] with those of the four chip samples [only blue bars.]
Note the energy values of the explosives. They range from about 5.5 to 4.0 kJ/g. The value for thermite is 3.9 kJ/g and this is the thermodynamic
maximum energy for the reaction. Nano-sizing doesn't change this maximum value.
If the chips were 100% thermite, the most energy they could have would be 3.9 kJ/g. If the chips were 100% HMX, the most energy they could have would
be 5.5 kJ/ gram. If we then combine the thermite with an energetic binder, we can calculate energies of various combinations; all would be between 3.9
and 5.5 kJ/g. A 50:50 mix would have about 4.7 kJ/g.
Now we look at the "highly engineered" chips. Two are well below the maxima but two are above the maxima. The binder in the chips has been shown to
contain carbon and possibly oxygen and other heteroatoms. Even though we have allowed extremely energetic nitramine binders, no combination of highly
energetic binder and thermite can reach those values.
What sort of binder would allow those energies to be reached? If we allowed combustion in air, any carbonaceous polymer. For example, polyethylene
provides almost 48 kJ/g. It wouldn't take much burning PE to provide the measured energy if we permitted combustion in air. Without air, there is no
way to provide such energy.
We have combustion but don't know how much of the energy is due to combustion and how much is due to anything else.
What should be done to determine how much is due to combustion, Turbo?




