Dissolution Rates of Chemical Components of an Insensitive High Explosive Formulation
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Abstract
The need of insensitive munition has driven the replacement of traditional explosives by Insensitive High Explosives (IHE), less sensitive to external stimuli. This new generation contains compounds such as 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) and 5-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (NTO) that have different psyco-chemical properties, making them more labile and mobile through the environment. However, little is known about the persistence and toxicity of these chemicals once released in the environment and this raises the challenge on how they can be assessed for human exposure. Accelerated laboratory experiments such as soil columns or bottle flask have being addressing the problem, although they can be time consuming, expensive and results cannot be extrapolated to different environments. Computational modelling can help to overcome this issue, as it allows the simulation of fate and transport of explosive compounds in the environment under a different insight. Nevertheless, the simulations and predictions made with this approach are not representative enough and they require inputs that can only be obtained experimentally. Additionally, there are extra problems when assessing explosive impact in soil as it is a heterogeneous matrix and it varies over time and studied area. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a representative computational model to inform the fate, transport and persistence of IHE compounds in the environment. For that, GoldSim, a simulation software has been chosen due to its flexibly on modelling and due to the possibility of adding stochastic simulations, which are able to better understand and model uncertainties. The model will be used to assess environmental risks of explosives and to help remediation strategies.