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Composition B

Explosive, a mix of RDX and TNT

Summary

Explosive, a mix of RDX and TNT

DM41 fragmentation hand grenade]] has been dissected to reveal the steel fragmentation sleeve and yellow Composition B explosive charge.

Composition B (Comp B), also known as Hexotol and Hexolite (among others), is a high explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT. It is used as the main explosive filling in artillery projectiles, rockets, land mines, hand grenades, and various other munitions. It was also used for the explosive lenses in the first implosion-type nuclear weapons developed by the United Kingdom and United States.

The standard proportions of ingredients (by weight) are 59.5% RDX (detonation velocity of 8,750 m/s) and 39.5% TNT (detonation velocity of 6,900 m/s), phlegmatized with 1% paraffin wax. Most commonly it is described as 60/40 RDX/TNT with 1% wax added.

Properties

Density: 1.65 g/cm3
Velocity of detonation: 8,050 m/s

Use

Composition B was extremely common in Western nations' munitions and was the standard explosive filler from early World War II until the early 1950s, when less sensitive explosives such as Composition H6 began to replace it in many weapons. M65 bombs from 1953 containing degraded Composition B were responsible for much of the damage in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire.

Some NATO-approved munitions suppliers such as Mecar have continued to use Composition B in their products.

Composition B is related to Cyclotol, which has a higher proportion of RDX (up to 75%).

IMX-101 is slowly replacing Comp B in US military artillery shells, and IMX-104 in mortar rounds and hand grenades.

Gallery

File:DM41 3.jpg|German DM41 fragmentation hand grenade labelled to indicate a filling of Composition B. File:USMC-100414-M-5241M-001.jpg|M107 projectiles. All are labelled to indicate a filling of "Comp B" and have fuzes fitted. File:US Army Military Engineers working with explosive device - Exercise Talisman Sabre 2011.jpg|A 40 lb shaped charge munition (marked to indicate a Composition B filling) used for various demolition purposes such as boring a hole for a cratering charge. File:Ford_MUTT_M151A1C_FSN_2320-763-1091_pic1.JPG|The 106mm recoilless rifle HEAT shell on the right is marked "Comp B".

References

Cooper, Paul W.. (1996). "Explosives Engineering". Wiley-VCH.
''Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man'', John Coster-Mullen, 2003
[http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html#nfaq8.1.1 Nuclear Weapons FAQ section 8.1.1: The Design of Gadget, Fat Man, and "Joe 1" (RDS-1)], accessed August 10, 2009
Military Specification MIL-C-401
Walsh, Michael R.. (2014-04-01). "Energetic Residues from the Detonation of IMX-104 Insensitive Munitions". Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

explosives trinitrotoluene

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