Publications - Materials Technology

Defects in energetic materials are relatively common and can have a significant impact on the safety and reliability of munitions, yet there is a lack of clarity in the use of terminology for describing and classifying these defects.

Following many discussions and multiple iterations over two years, MSIAC has produced a largely self-consistent taxonomy and lexicon of terms related to defects in energetic materials and munition systems, based on the paradigm of materials science and engineering.

Defects in munition systems are common and can have a significant impact on Safety and Suitability for Service (S3).

Mechanical properties of energetic materials dictate how a material will respond to a mechanical load.

This report addresses the implications of the presence of both conventional and insensitive munitions (IM) in a national stockpile, and presents theoretical methods to determine a critical amount or fraction of IM that may avoid escalation of accident scenarios (e.g.

Defects in energetic materials are relatively common and can have a significant impact on the safety and reliability of munitions, yet there is a lack of clarity in the use of terminology for describing and classifying these defects.

This document is to serve as a background resource for the array of interactions that X-ray, gamma and neutron radiation may have with a munition system during the course of a non-destructive examination.  The discussion of X-rays and gamma rays (energetic photons) is li

For trinitrotoluene (TNT) and explosive formulations containing TNT (e.g. Composition B), TNT exudation in projectiles, bombs, and rockets has been a recurring problem since the early 1920s.

When dealing with energetic materials, TNT equivalency is commonly used for different purposes. For scientific purposes, it is a means to compare the explosive effects delivered by different energetic compositions, by expressing them in terms of an equivalent TNT detonation.