O-024 Summary of NIMIC 1995 Workshop on Sympathetic Reactions Between Munitions

NIMIC, being the custodian of the hazard protocols drafted by TTCP in the period 1988-1991, held a series of workshops (4 as of now) in order to have a better understanding of the main threats considered from mathematical modeling to practical experience.

This paper is an executive summary of the 4-day NIMIC workshop on Sympathetic Reactions between Munitions, held at GIAT Industries, Versailles, France on 13-16 June 1995. The event was attended by 85 representatives from a total of 35 governmental and industrial organizations, coming from 7 NIMIC member nations.

The primary objectives of the workshop were to:

1. Identify and understand the risks of sympathetic reaction or detonation faced by munitions in various configurations.
2. Identify, understand and model the main mechanisms involved in sympathetic reactions so as to avoid, as often as possible, costly all-up-round tests.
3. Plan suitable tests to reflect the conditions of sympathetic reactions.
4. Highlight success stories and technology gaps for mitigating sympathetic detonation/explosion and propagation of combustion between munitions.

The full proceedings, restricted to the 10 NIMIC member nations (AU, CA, FR, IT, NL, NO, PO, SP, US, UK), describe the technical presentations, discussions, conclusions and recommendations of the 5 working groups which addressed the following specific topics:

1. Threat Hazard Assessment
2. Modeling of Sympathetic Detonation/Explosion
3. Mitigation Recipes for Sympathetic Detonation/Explosion
4. Propagation of Combustion between Munitions
5. Protocols