TY - JOUR
T1 - Detonation performance of urea-hydrogen peroxide (UHP)**
AU - Halleux, Francis
AU - Pons, Jean François
AU - Wilson, Ian
AU - Simoens, Bart
AU - Van Riet, Romuald
AU - Lefebvre, Michel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2023/5
Y1 - 2023/5
N2 - Carbamide Peroxide, an adduct of Urea and Hydrogen Peroxide, is commonly used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries as a solid source of hydrogen peroxide. However, it exhibits explosive properties and can be easily manufactured from readily available household chemicals, making it a potential emerging threat. We carried out a detailed performance assessment, combining experiments, thermochemical calculations and numerical simulations and highlighted a good level of agreement between experimental data from lab, field and underwater firings. A maximum detonation velocity of 3.65 km/s was recorded for unconfined 25 kg UHP charges at 0.85 g/cm3 (200 mm charge diameter). We determined in these conditions an infinite diameter detonation velocity of 3.94 km/s. These results are also consistent with previous results obtained at small scale under heavy confinement. Airblast measurements highlighted an average 40 % TNT equivalence for impulse and 55 % for peak overpressure at short distance, which are in good agreement with the 57 % (Power Index) calculated from Explo5, while 50 % for bubble energy (explosive power) and 20 % for shock pressure (brisance) were obtained from underwater experiments. The use of different experimental approaches has proven useful to characterise the performances parameters of a non-ideal explosive for risk assessment purposes.
AB - Carbamide Peroxide, an adduct of Urea and Hydrogen Peroxide, is commonly used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries as a solid source of hydrogen peroxide. However, it exhibits explosive properties and can be easily manufactured from readily available household chemicals, making it a potential emerging threat. We carried out a detailed performance assessment, combining experiments, thermochemical calculations and numerical simulations and highlighted a good level of agreement between experimental data from lab, field and underwater firings. A maximum detonation velocity of 3.65 km/s was recorded for unconfined 25 kg UHP charges at 0.85 g/cm3 (200 mm charge diameter). We determined in these conditions an infinite diameter detonation velocity of 3.94 km/s. These results are also consistent with previous results obtained at small scale under heavy confinement. Airblast measurements highlighted an average 40 % TNT equivalence for impulse and 55 % for peak overpressure at short distance, which are in good agreement with the 57 % (Power Index) calculated from Explo5, while 50 % for bubble energy (explosive power) and 20 % for shock pressure (brisance) were obtained from underwater experiments. The use of different experimental approaches has proven useful to characterise the performances parameters of a non-ideal explosive for risk assessment purposes.
KW - detonation
KW - non ideal explosive
KW - performance
KW - urea hydrogen peroxide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150450100&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/prep.202300011
DO - 10.1002/prep.202300011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85150450100
SN - 0721-3115
VL - 48
JO - Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics
JF - Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics
IS - 6
M1 - e202300011
ER -