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Tertiary explosives, also called blasting agents, are so insensitive to shock that they cannot be reliably detonated by practical quantities of primary explosive, and instead require an intermediate explosive booster of secondary explosive. These are often used for safety and the typically lower costs of material and handling.
A substance is an explosive compound on its own; an article is an end user explosive product. Group A: Primary explosive substance. Group B: Article containing a primary explosive substance and not containing two or more effective protective features. Some articles, such as detonators for blasting, detonator assemblies for blasting and primers ...
During the Attack of Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona was struck with an armor-piercing bomb which penetrated the upper deck and stopped inside the forward magazine. The bomb triggered an explosion which was powerful enough to cut the Arizona in half and is considered a sympathetic detonation as there was an apparent delay between the detonation of the bomb and the contents of the forward magazine.
It is a secondary explosive, meaning it is more difficult to detonate than primary explosives, so dropping or igniting it will typically not cause an explosion (at standard atmospheric pressure it is difficult to ignite and burns vigorously), but is more sensitive to shock and friction than other secondary explosives such as TNT or tetryl.
In explosives engineering, sensitivity refers to the degree to which an explosive can be initiated by impact, heat, or friction. [1] Current in-use standard methods of mechanical (impact and friction) sensitivity determination differ by the sample preparation (constant mass or volume is usually used; pile or pressed pellet), sample arrangement (confined/unconfined sample etc), instrument type ...
The velocity of detonation is an important indicator for overall energy and power of detonation, and in particular for the brisance or shattering effect of an explosive which is due to the detonation pressure. The pressure can be calculated using Chapman-Jouguet theory from the velocity and density.
As a general rule, PETN is considered to be either a relatively insensitive primary explosive, or one of the most sensitive secondary explosives. PETN may be detonated by striking with a hammer on a hard steel surface (a very dangerous thing to do), and is generally considered the least sensitive explosive with which this may be done.
The explosive triggering sequence or the explosive train essentially consists of an 'initiator', an 'intermediary' and the 'high explosive'. For example, a match will not cause plastic explosive to explode, but it will light a fuse coupled with a blasting cap which will detonate a primary explosive that will shock a secondary high explosive and ...