Detonation performance of urea‐hydrogen peroxide (UHP)

• Published in: Propellants, explosives, pyrotechnics Vol. 48; no. 6
• Main Authors: Halleux, Francis, Pons, Jean‐François, Wilson, Ian, Simoens, Bart, Van Riet, Romuald, Lefebvre, Michel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2023
• Subjects: Detonation; Diameters; Household chemicals; Hydrogen peroxide; non ideal explosive; Overpressure; Performance assessment; Risk assessment; Underwater; urea hydrogen peroxide; Ureas
• ISSN: 0721-3115; 1521-4087
• DOI: 10.1002/prep.202300011

Carbamide Peroxide, an adduct of Urea and Hydrogen Peroxide, is commonly used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries as a solid source of hydrogen peroxide. However, it exhibits explosive properties and can be easily manufactured from readily available household chemicals, making it a potential emerging threat. We carried out a detailed performance assessment, combining experiments, thermochemical calculations and numerical simulations and highlighted a good level of agreement between experimental data from lab, field and underwater firings. A maximum detonation velocity of 3.65 km/s was recorded for unconfined 25 kg UHP charges at 0.85 g/cm3 (200 mm charge diameter). We determined in these conditions an infinite diameter detonation velocity of 3.94 km/s. These results are also consistent with previous results obtained at small scale under heavy confinement. Airblast measurements highlighted an average 40 % TNT equivalence for impulse and 55 % for peak overpressure at short distance, which are in good agreement with the 57 % (Power Index) calculated from Explo5, while 50 % for bubble energy (explosive power) and 20 % for shock pressure (brisance) were obtained from underwater experiments. The use of different experimental approaches has proven useful to characterise the performances parameters of a non‐ideal explosive for risk assessment purposes.