Delta-R
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Why did TNT become so universal?
So like the title says, of all the high explosives known back before WWI/II, why did so many countries choose TNT as the de facto standard military
high explosive, and how did it stick around so long? It requires a fairly intensive multi step synthesis that demands highly pure, expensive reagents
like oleum and white fuming nitric acid, leaves tons of toxic waste, and isn’t really that spectacular as an explosive (leaves a bunch of carbon
soot residue, isn’t all that powerful, less than .75 the RE factor of nitroglycerin, etc), at least compared to the difficulty, cost, and
wastefulness of its production.
PETN, RDX, nitroglycerin, EGDN, nitrourea... all were invented in the late 1800’s, all have a higher RE factor, all are much easier to produce, and
while all were also used in the world wars, TNT was much more widely used either by itself or in a mixture from what I can tell, with only RDX
production beginning to come close towards the end of the WWII.
Was it purely a result of it’s insensitivity and ability to be melt cast? I feel like there must be some other factor I’m missing that outweighs
the downsides, considering all the other excellent options they had available.
And really, the same question could be asked for HMX too - considering the performance of HMX is practically identical to RDX, why would any military
take on the added difficulty and cost of production compared to RDX for such an insignificant benefit?
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Twospoons
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Those seem like pretty major advantages if you are making millions of shells - low risk of accidents and easy handling in manufacture. The
insensitivity is probably a bonus in the field too - who wants to ride around in a truck full of touchy munitions?
Helicopter: "helico" -> spiral, "pter" -> with wings
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Fulmen
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Don't forget long term stability.
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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Johnny Cappone
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As already mentioned, stability and sensitivity were certainly key factors. Well, at least it was what caused the replacement of picric acid by TNT
even when the availability of toluene was less than that of phenol, and even though TNT was a little less powerful.
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Herr Haber
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1906 or somewhere around there.
Germany uses TNT, UK uses picric acid.
UK shells detonate on impact with armour, German shells penetrate than detonate.
World learns a lesson.
The spirit of adventure was upon me. Having nitric acid and copper, I had only to learn what the words 'act upon' meant. - Ira Remsen
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Delta-R
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Ok well let’s take TNT vs RDX. TNT was discovered as an explosive in 1891, RDX 1898. RDX is by far the better explosive by any metric, yet TNT was
put into service by everyone almost immediately, or at least before 1910 whereas RDX didn’t really start to be used until the 1920’s and didn’t
really take off until the late 1930’s.
The only quality I really see where TNT comes out ahead is the ability to be melt cast. But let’s take filling shells - RDX is SO much more
powerful, even a shell with low density RDX powder poured in would sill be more powerful. And iF there was a situation that absolutely required an
insensitive casting, plasticizers and phlegmatizers had already been invented and in use and even a completely inert plasticizer would still yield a
product with a higher RE, no?
I guess what I’m saying is I just can understand one or even several countries investing heavily in TNT but it was everyone- and it’s just beyond
me why it took so long for better alternatives to really start taking hold and how TNT lasted so long
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Fulmen
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The fact that TNT is the preferred explosive should tell you that you're wrong.
First off, RDX is also SO much more sensitive than TNT. Filling artillery shells with powdered RDX? Powders are a total PITA to handle, and even if
you could do that, the shell will experience something in the order of 10'000g acceleration. Setback is a real danger even with TNT. Phlegmatized RDX
might work, but it would still be a major drawback during loading.
And what about cost? IIRC the direct nitration process available for RDX back then was inefficient, partly because it was hard to recycle spent acid.
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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unionised
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Did you consider cost?
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roXefeller
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A better reason for the switch from picric acid to TNT was its lack of acidity. Munitions people didn't need to worry about dangerous salts.
I don't know much about the driving factor between HMX and RDX beyond solid propellants, but that cast-ability of TNT is major. Like mentioned above
charging powders is a PITA, they can aggregate loose and ask for pinch points. Amorphous TNT is really sleepy. Detonation requires a heterogenous
mix to decrease critical diameters, they are the sites of microheating. Waxy TNT doesn't have that but crystalline RDX does.
Don't get wrapped up on single metrics of detonation. RDX is known for brisance, but not all applications demand that. Airblast and lift are also
important aspects. If more brisance and sensitivity were asked for, they blended RDX into TNT.
I second the motion of asking about cost. Given the procedures to recycle acids from third stage nitration back to second and first stage nitration
(which RDX doesn't have from its instability to survive linear polynitramine decomposition), has relative cost been computed? Include yield
percentages in that.
One thing to detract from TNT that you didn't mention was the liver toxicity from chronic handling.
One must forego the self to attain total spiritual creaminess and avoid the chewy chunks of degradation.
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Fyndium
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Industrial scale dedicated production is not that sensitive on multi-step synthesis, especially if stuff can be recycled.
Previous posts indicate many good points of TNT. Melt-casting eases up mass production of shells to huge extent, and it also increases RE by higher
density compared to powders. Safety is a major factor too, as war equipment tends to get manhandled and shot at and it would be silly to get blown up
by some stray bullets. Toxicity has never been such of a concern for industry, as it lays on the workers and once they walk out the plant, it's their
problem, and everything that is liquid, can be pumped down the river, and solids can be dumped away from sight. Nowadays at least some occupational
and environmental laws exist.
Also I've understood that TNT was rarely used as sole, but it was mixed with various compositions, and the TNT can act more as a binder, like bitumen
in asphalt, creating a processable mass that can be easily handled, transferred, pumped, filled and packed and it has high efficiency.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT#Applications
I could not imagine using energetic powders in mass filling of artillery shells. Actually handling any sort of powder that is more reactive than
flour(except, don't forget about flour explosions) is pita, as it gets everywhere, is difficult to fill and pack and is hard to mix homogenously.
Amateurs generally lack the concept of mass production because they only need to make a pinch of stuff for experiments and many people believe that
stuff is made and handled by people handling them, while in reality most everything has been automatic packing lines since the beginning of century.
They made hundreds of millions of munitions during the wars.
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Hey Buddy
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Impact and thermal insensitivity along with melt cast made it suitable for efficient mass production and standardization. All the world war nations
tooled up for it and developed batch methods. When Fischer-Tropsch method came out of the bag and everybody figured out you could make hydrocarbon
fuels from coal and biomass/syngas, obviously now toluene could be produced as a branched off product after torrefaction solids or liquid fuels which
were produced necessarily.
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Antiswat
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because its easy to handle, and easy by handle also includes stable to store- doesnt break down to become dangerous like NG would
essentially, the incompetence of the many defines the use of materials. very sad to think about
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Fyndium
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Applies to society and law universally. Even more sad to think. They should ban stupid people instead.
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stamasd
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TNT is cheap to manufacture from plentiful ingredients. In war, that plays a huge role in making a decision for or against ordnance.
It does not help if you've got the universe's best explosive, if you don't have the ingredients to make it from in sufficient quantities.
[Edited on 5-1-2021 by stamasd]
All your acids are belong to us.
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roXefeller
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Quote: Originally posted by Johnny Cappone  | | As already mentioned, stability and sensitivity were certainly key factors. Well, at least it was what caused the replacement of picric acid by TNT
even when the availability of toluene was less than that of phenol, and even though TNT was a little less powerful. |
As Don Cappone mentioned, availability of precursors probably wasn't weighing heavily on their decision to adopt the safest molecule.
| Quote: Originally posted by Hey Buddy | | When Fischer-Tropsch method came out of the bag and everybody figured out you could make hydrocarbon fuels from coal and biomass/syngas, obviously now
toluene could be produced as a branched off product after torrefaction solids or liquid fuels which were produced necessarily. |
And necessity is the mother of invention.
One must forego the self to attain total spiritual creaminess and avoid the chewy chunks of degradation.
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Mush
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Bit off topic , yet still relevant .
TNT is important because it can be melt-cast and forms melt cast matrix with other explosives. However alternative compounds are being researched.
3,5-difluoro-2,4,6-trinitroanisole: promising melt-cast insensitive explosives instead of TNT
ABSTRACT
Finding new melt-cast explosives with desired properties to replace 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) has been intensely-pursued in recent decades. However,
the contradiction among high energy, low mechanical sensitivity and low-melting makes the innovation of insensitive high-energy-density melt-cast
explosives an enormous challenge, so the melt-cast explosives of comprehensive properties better than TNT has not been found. Here, we show a new way
to design melt-cast insensitive energetic compound by the introduction of C-F into nitroaromatics. This as-synthesized energetic compound exhibits
excellent performance with a high-measured density of 1.81 g cm−3, high thermal decomposition temperature (>300°C), high detonation velocity of
8.54 km s−1, appropriate melting point (82°C) and low viscosity(6200 mpa·S), and extremely low mechanical sensitivities (impact sensitivity,
>60 J, and friction sensitivity, >360 N), superior to those of current melt-cast explosives, such as TNT and 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN).
| Code: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07370652.2020.1859645 |
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Alkoholvergiftung
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TNT was not only used because incompetent people handle it. It was detonation safty if the ammonition bunker was hit. I cant find it now but i know
they wrote an artillery shell with picrid acid can be detonated with an charge 76cm away from it. It it is filled with TNT only 15cm or so.
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Petn1933
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| Quote: Originally posted by Mush | Bit off topic , yet still relevant .
TNT is important because it can be melt-cast and forms melt cast matrix with other explosives. However alternative compounds are being researched.
3,5-difluoro-2,4,6-trinitroanisole: promising melt-cast insensitive explosives instead of TNT
ABSTRACT
Finding new melt-cast explosives with desired properties to replace 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) has been intensely-pursued in recent decades. However,
the contradiction among high energy, low mechanical sensitivity and low-melting makes the innovation of insensitive high-energy-density melt-cast
explosives an enormous challenge, so the melt-cast explosives of comprehensive properties better than TNT has not been found. Here, we show a new way
to design melt-cast insensitive energetic compound by the introduction of C-F into nitroaromatics. This as-synthesized energetic compound exhibits
excellent performance with a high-measured density of 1.81 g cm−3, high thermal decomposition temperature (>300°C), high detonation velocity of
8.54 km s−1, appropriate melting point (82°C) and low viscosity(6200 mpa·S), and extremely low mechanical sensitivities (impact sensitivity,
>60 J, and friction sensitivity, >360 N), superior to those of current melt-cast explosives, such as TNT and 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN).
| Code: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07370652.2020.1859645 |
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Attachment: DF8726F9-DA19-4831-BC6D-CF67806994E7.pdf (1.9MB)
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Fulmen
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Dude, that's some sweet specs. What about toxicity? Even though it's quite manageable with simple precautions and protective gear, the toxicity of TNT
has always been a downside.
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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