Detonation performance of Urea-Hydrogen Peroxide (UHP)

Abstract

Carbamide Peroxide, an adduct of Urea and Hydrogen Peroxide, is commonly used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries as a solid source of hydrogen peroxide. However, it exhibits explosive properties and can be easily manufactured from readily available household chemicals, making it a potential emerging threat. We carried out a detailed performance assessment, combining experiments, thermochemical calculations and numerical simulations and highlighted a good level of agreement between experimental data from lab, field and underwater firings. A maximum detonation velocity of 3.65 km/s was recorded for unconfined 25 kg UHP charges at 0.85 g/cm 3 (200 mm charge diameter). We determined in these conditions an infinite diameter detonation velocity of 3.94 km/s. These results are also consistent with previous results obtained at small scale under heavy confinement. Airblast measurements highlighted an average 40% TNT equivalence for impulse and 55% for peak overpressure at short distance, which are in good agreement with the 57% (Power Index) calculated from Explo5, while 50% for bubble energy (explosive power) and 20% for shock pressure (brisance) were obtained from underwater experiments. The use of different experimental approaches has proven useful to characterise the performances parameters of a non-ideal explosive for risk assessment purposes.