We assert that there is a clear effect of crystal quality on the behavior of PBX, which should influence future more » insensitive munition formulation design choices. Production grade crystals exhibited consistent cracking behavior in the crystals, while the recrystallized crystals exhibited debonding from the surrounding binder material and cracked much less frequently. We observed a clear distinction in the qualitative behavior of production-grade versus recrystallized ‘low-defect’ HMX crystals which lacked significant internal voids. The PBX samples used in these experiments were composed of single production-grade and recrystallized octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) crystals embedded in a Sylgard® 184 binder doped with iron (III) oxide. In order to visualize the behavior of these crystals, high-speed phase contrast imaging experiments were conducted using synchrotron X-ray radiation to observe the internal crack behavior of simplified PBXs subjected to low velocity impact. These unintended loads can lead to crystal fracture and frictional heating, amongst other mechanisms, in the energetic crystals of a PBX. Most explosive devices are typically initiated by some external stimulus however, initiations can also occur via localized mechanical conversion of energy during impact, called ‘hot spots’. Polymer bonded explosives (PBX) have many applications in both the military and civilian sectors, making their safety and behavior predictability of the utmost importance.
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