L-016b Summary of NIMIC 1993 Workshop on sensitivity of Energetic Materials when fractured or granular

The NATO Insensitive Munitions Information Center (NIMIC) held a three day workshop hosted by the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and held at the Edgewood Conference Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, USA from 19 to 21 July 1993. Forty-five specialists from the NIMIC nations ( FR, NL, UK and US) participated in the workshop and were divided into five working groups to address the following subjects.

• Group 1: Fracture of energetic materials, irrespective of their energetic character;
• Group 2: Evolution of fractured or granular energetic materials under dynamic loading;
• Group 3: Flame propagation in fractured or granular energetic materials;
• Group 4: Effects of pressure build-up on the reaction- DDT;
• Group 5: Protocols.

This technical paper highlights the findings from each group discussion. The findings range from suggested topics for further research and areas for international cooperative efforts to a cataloguing of advice to designers. Subjects discussed include damage characterization of energetic materials, sensitivity ranking, ignition theories and flame propagation, modes of ignition and ignitibility criteria for damaged materials. The paper summarizes results of a 200 page report on this workshop (including 16 state-of-the-art overviews and 16 technical presentations).

The workshop results indicated that, globally, the amount of expertise of the participants was very high, but it was scattered between nations, or even between different departments or services within the same nation. Hence, assembling all these participants proved very fruitful, and still more promising in the longer term, since much work remains to be done to fully benefit from the opportunities for synergism identified as a basis for cooperative programs.