NITRO DERIVATIVES OF TOLUENE 319(2) for d= 1.59 g/cm
34.4C 7 H 5 (NO 2 ) 3 = 5.47CO 2 + 9.39CO + 6.09H 2 O + 1.63H 2 + 0.03CmHn + 0.42CH 4 +
+ 1.5NH 3 + 0.32HCN + 0.3C 2 N 2 + 5.39N 2 + 14.6C
The heat of explosion = 1085 kcal/kg, the volume of gases V 0 = 685 l./kg.
I = 3630°C.
According to R. Robertson and Garner [112], the heat of explosion of TNT
is 925 kcal/kg, and the volume of gases is 711 l./kg.
The sensitiveness of TNT to impact is very small, but because of the lack of
a standard testing method, the data, reported by various authors, range within
wide limits. Taking 100 for the sensitiveness of picric acid, values varying from
115 to 275 are quoted for TNT.
With increasing temperature the sensitiveness of TNT to impact increases like
that of other explosives. This can be seen from Table 74, given by Rinkenbach [113].TABLE 74
EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON THE SENSITIVENESS OF TNT TO IMPACTTemperatureHeight from which 2 kg°C State of TNTweight must fall to
cause explosion, cm-40 solid^43
20 solid^36
80 liquid^18
90 liquid 7.5
105-110 liquid^5Robertson [113a], however, reported that the sensitiveness of picric acid at
80°C is only 25% greater than that at 15°C. This may well be extended to other trinitro
compounds, so it would be expected that the increase in sensitiveness of TNT with
increasing temperature is less significant than that given by Rinkenbach.
T. Urbanski and Sikorska [141] recently determined sensitiveness to impact
by means of the “piston apparatus” [115] (Fig. 73) as it gives uniform results
at elevated temperature. The percentage of explosions were determined by striking
the samples with a falling weight of 10 kg from heights of 25, 30 and 50 cm. The
recoils were 4.5, 5 and 11 cm, and the calculated impact energies for a surface
were 2.7, 3.1 and 5.0 kgm/cm^2 respectively. The experiments were repeated 100
times at each height.
FIG 73. “Piston apparatus” of Kholevo-Andreyev [115] for determi-
nation of sensitiveness of explosives to impact.