Powder Fluidization Grenade (PFG) for Particulate Obscurant Dissemination

The use of high explosive powder obscurant (PO) grenades can cause serious injury and death as well as unwanted collateral damage in the form of incendiary destruction. U.S Army's objective is to greatly mitigate these hazards and improve the overall powder yield, dissemination and performance of PO grenades while eliminating the use of traditional explosive materials. HMC has shown through its Phase I SBIR research and development efforts, a new and innovative method for PO dissemination that consistently produces a + 90% yield with a minimum of powder agglomeration. This technique uses a gas stream to fluidize, entrain and aerosol a wide variety of powder nano-materials including metal flakes. The system uses a single gas stream which provides the necessary propellant energy and powder entrainment medium to accomplish efficient dissemination and dispersion of nano-material powder obscurants, including metal flakes.