Fuel-Air Explosive Technologies from Dual-Use Materials

ABSTRACT: Energetic Materials Research and Engineering (EMRE), LLC proposes to develop a technique for using residual missile fuel to generate a detonative event that will significantly enhance the blast of the warhead upon impact. This entails the design of an integrated active case and related explosive systems technology that will use air and other elements to generate the enhanced blast in a single-stage event. We will use a combined approach consisting of both small-scale experimentation on selected design configurations in addition to modeling and simulation. BENEFIT: Currently fuel that remains upon missile impact does not contribute to the blast created by the warhead. This proposal develops a method wherein that fuel which is currently dead weight will be used to generate a significant blast contribution, thus increasing the yield of the warhead with small additional complexity.