New method for estimating the heat of formation of CHNO explosives in crystalline state
Mohammad Keshavarz, Mohsen Oftadeh
For CHNO explosives, a new correlation is derived, which has the form Qcorr/cal = 0.196Tad/K+755 in the range Qcorr > 1100 between Kamlet’s corrected heat of detonation, Qcorr, and approximate detonation temperature, Tad. The semi-empirical PM3 procedure is used for calculating the approximate heat of formation of the explosive in the gas phase, which is required for the computation of Tad. In calculating Qcorr, it is assumed that the decomposition products of any CHNO explosives consist of CO, CO2, H2O, N2, H2, solid carbon, and in the next step the carbon monoxide is converted to carbon dioxide and solid carbon. The calculated Qcorr can be used for the determination of the heat of formation of any CHNO explosives in the solid state.