Increased shock sensitivity of the insensitive explosive LX-17 at high temperatures

Explosive formulations based on TATB (1.3.5-trichloro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene) have proven to be remarkably insensitive to shock and thermal stimuli. However, hazards to an insensitive high explosive (IHE) charge do not always confine themselves to a single stimulus. In the study reported here, we have investigated the response of the LLNL explosive LX-17 (92.5%/7.5% TATB/Kel-F 800) to shock when the explosive is at an elevated temperature. The motivation for the work was to learn the extent to which the shock initiation threshold and critical initiation area of LX-17 are lowered by exposure to elevated temperature.