Compatibility Screening of Explosive‐Inert Mixtures

ABSTRACT Inert materials are necessary components in explosive devices and they must be tested for compatibility with the explosive materials to ensure that the device will function as expected over its lifetime in representative environments. True compatibility testing is time‐consuming and expensive and so compatibility screening is often used as an early assessment. The screening is carried out with analytical methods run at temperatures exceeding those that the device will encounter in its lifetime. Shortcomings of this approach are discussed and improvements using a transient contact method and microcalorimetry are proposed. Typical screening results and microcalorimetry results are compared for a polyurethane adhesive—PBX 9502 combination.