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Study of thermal and safety behaviour of nanoboron blended flash powder

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Abstract

The flash powder composition consists of KNO3, Al and S that are used in major quantities in pyrotech industries. This mixture is sensitive to both shock and friction. As a result, recent research works were focused on reducing sensitivity by replacing the aluminium metal which is the root cause for this sensitiveness. From studies, it is identified that micron-sized boron is used to replace about 65.65% of aluminium. The boron used in this mixture has an activation energy of about 205 kJ mol−1. Due to the high activation energy, the replacement is restricted up to 65.65%. In order to reduce the activation energy, the size of the boron particles are reduced by using wet ball milling method. Thus, the reduced boron particles are now employed in flash powder mixtures. The nanoboron blended mixtures are subjected to sensitivity tests, thermal behaviour tests, MIE tests, explosive pressure tests and finally sound performance tests. From the test results, it is concluded that the aluminium replacement with boron is increased up to 85% with simultaneous increase in safety also.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India, for sanctioning the project (File No. EMR/2016/001715) as well as the management and the Principal of Mepco Schlenk Engineering College for motivating and providing support to conduct this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, 626005, India

    Azhagurajan Arumugachamy & Prakash Lakshmana Pandian

  2. Department of Chemistry, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, 626005, India

    Jeyasubramanian Kadarkaraithangam

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  1. Azhagurajan Arumugachamy
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  2. Prakash Lakshmana Pandian
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  3. Jeyasubramanian Kadarkaraithangam
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Contributions

Dr. Azhagurajan, principal investigator, was involved in design and preparation of the samples and also helped in data collection and experimentation process. Mr. Prakash, corresponding author, participated in sample preparation and carried out the experimentation process and also consolidated the results. Dr. Jeyasubramanian, co-investigator, helped in the experimentation process, analysing the results and manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Prakash Lakshmana Pandian.

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Arumugachamy, A., Lakshmana Pandian, P. & Kadarkaraithangam, J. Study of thermal and safety behaviour of nanoboron blended flash powder. J Therm Anal Calorim 146, 483–491 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-021-10891-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-021-10891-3

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