Insight into electrostatic initiation of nitramine explosives

The electrostatic safety of explosives is of great importance. However, the mechanism for the transfer of energy from an electrostatic spark to the reactive center of an explosive material is not well understood. Thus, in this work, we attempted to clarify the mechanism associated with the static-electricity-initiated detonation of explosives using a model of the interaction that incorporated relevant parameters. Nitramine explosives were considered as examples to study the relationship between electrostatic spark energy and 32 relevant parameters. The four parameters that were most closely correlated with the electrostatic spark energy were the standard deviation of the negative electrostatic potential, the minimum surface electrostatic potential, the minimum ionization energy, and the detonation pressure. A model for the dependence of the electrostatic spark energy on these four parameters was derived using the theoretical method known as genetic function approximation. The electrostatic spark energy values predicted using this model were in good agreement with the corresponding experimental values. The results of this work should lead to a deeper understanding of the electrostatic initiation mechanism of nitramines, and help to inspire the design of new explosives.