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Updated: May 12, 2026

Research and Development of High-performance Explosives
Published on: February 20, 2016
Studies on formation of unconfined detonable vapor cloud using explosive means
A Apparao1, C R Rao2, S P Tewari2
1High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), Pune, India.
Abstract:
Certain organic liquid fuels like hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon oxides, when dispersed in air in the form of small droplets, mix with surrounding atmosphere forming vapor cloud (aerosol) and acquire explosive properties. This paper describes the studies on establishment of conditions for dispersion of fuels in air using explosive means resulting in formation of detonable aerosols of propylene oxide and ethylene oxide. Burster charges based on different explosives were evaluated for the capability to disperse the fuels without causing ignition. Parameters like design of canister, burster tube, burster charge type, etc. have been studied based on dispersion experiments. The detonability of the aerosol formed by the optimized burster charge system was also tested.
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