O-093 Effect of Ageing upon Insensitive Munitions

The effects of ageing upon energetic materials, and the consequences for Insensitive Munitions (IM), have been brought to the attention of the NIMIC on a number of occasions over the last few years. NIMIC is collating and reviewing relevant data in this area, the aim being to assist the NIMIC nations to implement IM safely and cost effectively into service.

In this paper, a general summary of some of the issues of concern are presented including:

• Critical Ageing Mechanisms for degradation of new energetic materials for IM applications
• Techniques used to monitor ageing
• The effect age induced changes in materials properties have upon IM performance
• RS-RDX Technical Meeting in November 2003
• Modeling of ageing mechanisms and simulating the effect upon overall munitions response