The science of chemistry is a important part of many engineering branches. Pyrotechnics is one of these branches, and in this article, we will describe and mention some of the basic and interesting facts concerning the science energetic materials. An explosive material is a material that is more or less chemically stable, and can, by initiation, cause a sudden expansion of matter, that is often accompanied with the production of pressure and heat. Explosions are mostly very loud, and are acompanied by a bright flash.
There are two basic groups of explosives: low and high explosives. This article will mostly describe facts related to the latter type.
The group of high explosives can further be devided into more groups: primary, secundary and possibly tertiary as well. Primary explosives are the most sensitive and because of that, most dangerous group of explosives. They can be sensitive to shock, friction, and heat. Some can even be affected negativaly with visible light, or with electromagnetic radiation of other wavelenghts. Some of the examples of primary explosives are acetone peroxide, methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, mercury fulminate, mercury azide, and others.
Secondary explosives are the other mentioned main group of explosives. They are characterized by greater (shock, friction and heat) stability. Because of that, they are used as the main explosive in most cases (while the primary explosives mainly find their use in detonators, in small quantities, thereby lowering the risk to an acceptable level). Some of the secondary explosives are so stable, that they can actually be destroyed by burning them, if such a action is neccessary. On the other hand, there are also explosives that are unusually sensitive/stable. For example, trinitroglycerine can be set on fire, (it burns with a nice and bright white flame), but at the same time, if one drops a test tube filled with the mentioned compound, of a height of, let’s say, 1-2 meters, let’s just say that the result of what would happen would be very unhealthy for your body.
Except for these main groups of explosives within the field of high explosives, it is neccessary to mention the possible tertiary group aswell. Explosives of this group show even greater shock, friction and heat stability, making them hard to detonate even with larger quantities of primary explosives. Because of that, they are mostly detonated using explosive boosters. These boosters are mostly just a larger amount of an secondary explosive that is detonated by using a primary explosive, so that detonation of the tertiary explosive could be achieved. Ammonium nitrate, and its composite explosives (in example ANFO), could be mentioned as typical examples.
Pyrotechnics as an engineering branch is closely related to chemistry, so if one is more interested in finding out and understending basic principles of this engineering branch, it’s a good idea to start learning with the help of basic tutorials concerning chemistry.
Get useful advice about free website traffic – make sure to read the page. The time has come when concise information is truly only one click of your mouse, use this chance.
