Thermal Damage on LX-04 Mock Material and Gas Permeability Assessment

RM-04-BR, a mock material for the plastic-bonded HMX-based explosive LX-04, is characterized after being thermally damaged at 140 C and 190 C. We measured the following material properties before and after the thermal experiments: sample volume, density, sound speed, and gas permeability in the material. Thermal treatment of the mock material leads to de-coloring and insignificant weight loss. Sample expanded, resulting in density reductions of 1.0% to 2.5% at 140 C and 190 C, respectively. Permeability in the mock samples was found to increase from 10{sup -15} to 10{sup -16} m{sup 2}, as the porosity increased. The permeability measurements are well represented by the Blake-Kozeny equation for laminar flow through porous media. The results are similar to the gas permeability in PBX-9501 obtained by other researchers