Effects of Boron Powders on the Detonation Performance of Emulsion Explosives

To study the effects of boron powders on the detonation performance of emulsion explosives, the explosion temperature field, shock wave parameters and explosion heat of emulsion explosives were studied. The differences of boron powders with and without microcapsule cladding on improving the explosion performance were also discussed. Experimental results showed that, when the mass ratio of boron powders increased from 0 to 20 mass%, the average explosion temperature, explosion pressure, positive impulse and explosion heat of boron-containing emulsion explosives increased at first and then decreased. When the content of boron powders was 16 mass%, the average explosion temperature, explosion pressure, positive impulse and explosion heat of emulsion explosives reached their maximum values of 2521 K, 0.0385 MPa, 7.11 Pa.s and 6335 kJ/kg, which were 22.2 %, 30.1%, 43.0% and 42.1% higher than those of the pure emulsion explosive (Sample A), respectively. Furthermore, the explosion temperature, positive impulse and explosion heat of emulsion explosive with boron powder-microcapsule (Sample B5) were up to 2648 K, 7.65 Pa.s and 6694 kJ/kg, increased by 5.0 %, 7.6% and 5.7% when compared with those of emulsion explosive with 16 mass% boron powders (Sample B3). Therefore, micro-encapsulation technology could improve the detonation performance of boron-containing emulsion explosives, which would be helpful to the formula design of high energy emulsion explosives.