Influence of Manufacturer‐Dependent Variations in Plate and Peg Properties on Friction Sensitivity Results

ABSTRACT Friction sensitivity testing is essential for evaluating the safety of energetic materials as it assesses their reactivity to inevitable mechanical stimuli encountered during handling and processing. However, variations in experimental data due to differences in testing conditions remain a major challenge associated with this method. This study investigated the influence of the type of porcelain plates and pegs, which hold the explosive sample and apply friction, on the results of friction sensitivity tests. Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und ‐prüfung (BAM)‐type tests were conducted using three types of consumables: one manufactured in Japan (KMC) and two in the Czech Republic (OZM and DLT) and were applied to four energetic materials: nitrocellulose (NC), RDX, HMX, and PETN. The results revealed that the KMC consumables consistently yielded lower limiting loads than OZM and DLT, indicating that KMC provides more conservative assessments. However, the surface roughness of the plates followed the order of OZM ≳ DLT > KMC, meaning that no correlation was observed between the roughness and the sensitivity. To explore the cause of this inconsistency, the contact area at the plate–peg interface was measured using pressure measurement film, which enabled estimation of the pressure on the explosive sample. The results indicated that KMC consumables had smaller contact areas and therefore exerted higher pressures than OZM and DLT under the same applied load. Furthermore, the limiting loads adjusted for the estimated pressure showed good correlation across the different types of consumables. These findings indicate that the macroscopic contact condition between the plate and peg is the key factor determining friction sensitivity.