Some factors influencing toxic fume generation by NG-based semigel explosives in laboratory studies

In a continued study on the generation of toxic fumes by commercial explosi ves the influence of some variations in a nitroglycerine (NG) based semigel explosive formulation was investigated in a cylindrical laboratory fume st udy chamber with a capacity of 6 m(3). The influences of varying quantities of wax coated cartridge wrapper, the grain sizes of ammonium nitrate and t he sampling time interval on the generation of oxides of nitrogen (NO,) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the detonation products were studied by analyzing a large number of sample data. A graphical analysis of the resulting fume d ata led to interesting findings, indicating the possibility of designing NG -based semigel explosives with a better fume quality through the selection of coarser grains of AN rather than finer grains as ingredient and smaller quantities of waxed wrapping paper as cartridge. A further reduction of the total toxic fume level in the post blast atmosphere may be achieved with l apse of time.