Explosive formulation by experimental design

Abstract
In order to increase the safety of ammunitions over their full life cycle (from the conception to the disposal), we are developping new explosive compositions called EIDS (Extremely Insensitive Detonating Substances). This work requires substantial investments because some raw materials, the development of the formulations, the preparation of samples and the achievement of the characterization tests are very expensive. To be able to carry out this task at the lowest cost, we focussed on two tools, the experimental designs and the performance predicting codes. By using together several experimental matrixes, we could define a very small number of samples which were assessed mainly by the mean of our predicting codes. Then, from the mathematical modelling of observed characteristics we could establish a narrow domain of formulations meeting the expected compromise between the explosive performances and the safety characteristics. The experimental validation test we carried out then, has confirmed the forecast results.