Reactive mixtures based on nano aluminium and nano‐ or micron size molybdenum trioxide have been pressed. These energetic mixtures have been tested in the Ballistic Impact Chamber and as an energetic projectile impacting a steel plate. Al/MoO3‐based reactive mixtures can be initiated by a controlled mechanical stimulus. The sensitivity depends on deformation velocity, pressing density, addition of fluorine containing binder and particle size. Nanometric mixtures of Al and MoO3 have a shorter time to reaction compared to the corresponding mixtures with micron size MoO3. The sensitivity decreases with increase in porosity. No influence of fuel/oxidizer ratio has been found in the experiments. An extensive deformation is needed before the start of reaction is observed. An analytical evaluation of shear rate cannot be applied as a detailed numerical simulation of the deformation process in PBXN‐109 shows.

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Deformation of energetic materials may cause undesired reactions and therefore hazardous situations. The deformation of an energetic material and in particular shear deformation is studied in this paper. Understanding of the phenomena leading to shear initiation is not only necessary to explain for example the response of munitions to intrusions or large deformations imposed in storage and transportation accidents. A fundamental understanding of shear initiation also provides the opportunity to initiate energetic materials in a different and controlled manner, and possibly with a tailored reaction rate of the material. Several small and large scale experiments have been performed in which a shear deformation is imposed onto high explosives as well as thermite based reactive materials. Experiments are numerically simulated in order to correlate small and large scale experiments and understand the initiation mechanisms.

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Plastic‐bonded explosives (PBXes) with different cross‐link densities and based on explosives with different particle size distributions have been compared for their initiation and detonation properties. The investigations showed that HMX‐based formulations become less sensitive at lower cross‐link densities. The shock sensitivity of two RDX‐based formulations differed considerably. This could have been caused by the particle size distribution of the RDX, but it could also be due to the fact that the explosives were obtained from different sources.