engineering

Use forms of explosives

Use forms of explosives is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Use forms of explosives rather than just read about it. In short: Explosive materials are produced in numerous physical forms for their use in mining, engineering, or military applications. The different physical forms and fabrication methods are grouped together in several use forms of explosives.

Key takeaways

Use forms of explosives belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Use forms of explosives to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Use forms of explosives from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Explosive materials are produced in numerous physical forms for their use in mining, engineering, or military applications. The different physical forms and fabrication methods are grouped together in several use forms of explosives. Explosives are sometimes used in their pure forms, but most common applications transform or modify them. These use forms are commonly categorized as:

Castings Castings, or castable explosives, are explosive materials or mixtures in which at least one component can be safely melted at a temperature at which it is safe to handle the other components, and which are normally produced by casting or pouring the molten mixture or material into a form or use container. In modern usage, trinitrotoluene or TNT is the basic meltable explosive used in essentially all castable explosives. Other ingredients found in modern castable explosives include:

Active, energetic or explosive ingredients: Aluminium powder Ammonium nitrate Ammonium picrate Barium nitrate EDNA HMX Lead nitrate PETN Sodium picrate RDX Tetryl Inert ingredients Boric acid Calcium chloride Wax Silica, often in the form of silica fume (Cab-o-sil for example) Common castable explosives include:

Amatol Baratol Boracitol Composition B Cyclotol Octol Pentolite Plumbatol Tritonal Torpex IMX-101

Polymer bonded Polymer-bonded explosives, also known as Plastic-bonded explosives or simply PBX, are a relatively solid and inflexible explosive form containing a powdered explosive material and a polymer (plastic) binder. These are usually carefully mixed, often with a very thin coating of the polymer onto the powder grains of the explosive material, and then hot pressed to form dense solid blocks of PBX material. There are numerous PBX explosives, mostly based on RDX, HMX, or TATB explosive materials. An extensive but by no means complete list of PBX materials is in the main polymer-bonded explosive article. The major naming systems for PBX use:

LX-# (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed PBXes) PBX #### (Los Alamos National Laboratory developed PBXes) PBXN-# (United States Navy developed PBXes) LX numbers range from 1 to 17. PBX system numbers start around 9000 and use numerous scattered numbers between there and 9700. Some commonly known PBXes are:

LX-17 PBX 9502 PBX 9404 LX-11 LX-14 PBXes are notable for their use in modern nuclear weapons. Modern US and British nuclear warheads nearly all use insensitive PBX types using only TATB explosive, to increase safety in case of accidents.

Putties, aka Plastic explosives Technically known as putties, but more commonly plastic explosives, these mixtures are a thick, flexible, moldable solid material that can be shaped and will retain that shape after forming, much like clay. Putties normally contain mostly RDX, but may include some PETN (Semtex, for example). Some common putties are:

C4 (Now-obsolete) Composition C Semtex PE-4

Rubberized Rubberized explosives are flat sheets of solid but flexible material, a mixture of a powdered explosive (commonly RDX or PETN) and a synthetic or natural rubber compound. Rubberized sheet explosives are commonly used for explosive welding and for various other industrial and military applications. Rubberized explosives can be cut to specific shape, bent around solid surfaces, glued or taped in place, or simply laid on relatively flat surfaces. Some common rubberized explosives include:

Detasheet - a discontinued DuPont product now manufactured by The Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Company Deta Flex - a DuPont military version of Detasheet LX-02-1 - a DuPont Deta Flex variant used by the US Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs Primasheet - current Ensign-Bickford product line Primasheet 1000 - Primasheet 1000 using PETN Primasheet 2000 - Primasheet 2000 using RDX Durasheet - current Donovan Commercial Industries product line Durasheet 1 - Durasheet 1 using PETN Durasheet 2 - Durasheet 2 using RDX Durasheet 3 - Durasheet 3 using PETN and Aluminum Durasheet 4 - Durasheet 4 using high loading density PETN

Extrudable Extrudable explosives are an extremely viscous liquid, similar in properties to silicone based caulking materials used in construction. It is used in similar ways - stored in a container, then extruded out a nozzle into thin cracks, holes, or along surfaces. Some extrudable explosives can then be hardened using a heat curing process. Others will remain a viscous fluid permanently. Common extrudable explosives include:

Setting extrudables LX-13 XTX-8003 XTX-8004 Non-setting extrudables Demex-400

Binary Binary explosives are cap-sensitive (detonatable with a standard #8 blasting cap) two-part explosive mixtures, shipped separately and combined at the use site. Many of these mixtures are based on Ammonium nitrate as an oxidizer plus a volatile fuel, but unlike ANFO (ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive) these binaries can be detonated by blasting caps. ANFO requires high explosive boosters to detonate it. Most binary explosives are a slurry after mixing, but some form a fluid with solid components dissolved into liquid ones. Some common binary explosives include:

Kinestik (ammonium nitrate/nitromethane) Tannerite (ammonium nitrate/aluminum) Kinepouch Kinepak Boulder-Busters Marine Pac ASTRO-PAK The historical but now uncommon Astrolite explosive is also a binary explosive. This category is somewhat unusual in that a single explosives researcher, Gerald Hurst, was responsible for inventing and developing most of the explosive mixtures now in use.

Blasting agents Blasting agents are explosive materials or mixtures which are not detonatable by standard #8 blasting caps. The best known blasting agent is ANFO explosive, a mixture containing primarily ammonium nitrate with a small quantity (typically around 6%) of fuel oil, most commonly diesel fuel. Other fuels and additives are used as well. While ANFO is often made on-site using fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate, blasting agents can also be purchased in prepackaged form, usually in metal or cardboard cylinders. Some brand names of packaged blasting agents include:

Nitramon Nitramite Pellite Carbomite Vibronite Dynatex Hydratol Anoil

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Use forms of explosives

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Use forms of explosives claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Use forms of explosives before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Use forms of explosives ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Use forms of explosives

In research: Use forms of explosives appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Use forms of explosives in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Use forms of explosives is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Explosives engineering, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Use forms of explosives outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Use forms of explosives in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Use forms of explosives means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Use forms of explosives out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Use forms of explosives in simple terms?

Why does Use forms of explosives matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Use forms of explosives?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Use forms of explosives.