Diameter Effect on Detonation Velocity of Ammonium Nitrate and Activated Carbon Mixtures

To obtain a better understanding of detonation properties of ammonium nitrate (AN) and activated carbon (AC) mixtures, steel tube test with several diameters was carried out for various compositions of powdered AN and AC mixtures and the influence of the charge diameter on the detonation velocity was investigated. The results of test indicated that the detonation velocity increased with the increase of the charge diameter. The experimentally observed values were far below the theoretically predicted values made by the thermohydrodynamic CHEETAH code and they showed so-called non-ideal detonation. The extrapolated detonation velocity of stoichiometric composition to the infinite diameter showed a good agreement with the theoretical value.