Phlegmatization of PETN Explosive with High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) and Optimization of Particle Size Distribution on its Mechanical Properties

In this study, some granulated and pressable formulations based on coating of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) explosives with high impact polystyrene polymer (HIPS), Viton fluoroelestomer and paraffin wax were developed. Thereafter, mechanical strength of pressed formulations and transition temperature of binders were evaluated using uniaxial compressive strength test and differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) method, respectively. Also, the effect of PETN particle size distribution on compressibility, mechanical strength, density and particle size of pressed samples based on HIPS binder were statistically studied and optimized using mixture design of experiments by Minitab software. In the optimized experimental conditions, the compressive strength and elastic modulus for PETN/HIPS mixture at ambient temperature and at the concentration of 4.0 wt.% of the binder, were 15.0 and 91.1 MPa, which is better than formulations based on expensive Viton polymer and paraffine wax. By using HIPS binder, increasing the amount of PETN particle size <150 μm, mechanical strength of pressed samples decrease, and also particle size distribution in the range of 150-300 μm , leads to production of better formulations.