ENHANCING PERFORMANCE OF SOUNDLESS CHEMICAL DEMOLITION AGENTS

Soundless chemical demolition agents (SCDAs) have been used in a varie ty of circumstances where other more conventional means of demolition were not feasible. When compared with conventional explosives, SCDAs a re not yet economically competitive. Research was conducted on SCDAs t o examine the possibility of adding an inert material (sand) to the SC DA in order to extend the material. Results show that although the exp ansive pressure generated by the SCDA is reduced by adding sand, reduc tion is not commensurate with the amount of sand added. Research was a lso conducted in order to determine if the workability of the SODA slu rry could be improved by adding a superplasticizer. These tests were c onducted at water contents below levels where conventional mixtures we re too stiff to effectively deposit them in a borehole. Results show t hat a superplasticizer can effectively improve SODA workability and th at the resultant expansive pressure is greater than that which is poss ible without the superplasticizer.