Thermal Safety Study of Emulsion Explosive Matrix under the Coupled Effects of Environmental Pressure and Bubble Content with Internal Heat Source

Abstract

Emulsion explosives have become a hot topic in various studies due to their explosive combustion characteristics and detonation performance under different environmental pressures. The thermal safety of an emulsified matrix was studied with ignition energy as the characterization. A minimum ignition energy test experimental system for emulsion matrices was established in this research. The system simulated the occurrence of hot spots inside emulsion matrices using an electric heating wire. The effect of bubbles on the thermal safety of the emulsified matrix was studied by adding expanded perlite additive to the emulsified matrix. This study investigated the variation trend in the minimum ignition energy of the emulsion matrix under the coupled effect of bubbles and ambient pressure using the orthogonal experimental method. The impacts of two factors on the thermal safety of the emulsion matrix were studied at different hot-spot temperatures. Coupled analysis experiments were conducted on emulsion matrices containing 0%, 1.5%, and 3% expanded perlite under pressure environments of 1 atm, 2 atm, and 3 atm. The critical hot-spot temperature of the emulsion matrix significantly decreases with increasing bubble content at 1 atm and 2 atm pressures, as revealed by intuitive analysis and analysis of variance. However, at 3 atm of pressure, the bubble content in the emulsion matrix has no significant effect on its critical hot-spot temperature. The results show that the thermal safety of the emulsified matrix decreases with the increase in the content of expanded perlite and environmental pressure, and the influence of environmental pressure is more significant than that of the bubble content. This paper’s research content serves as a reference for a safe emulsified matrix and as an experimental basis for establishing a production line for developing new equipment.