Environmental testing of energetic materials and systems

Systems which contain energetic materials such as solid rocket propellants, gun propellants, high explosives or pyrotechnic substances require a high level of care to fulfill safety regulations, to maintain operability and to provide excellent functionality. During their entire life cycle energetic materials and systems are subjected to environmental loads such as vibration, shock, heat, or humidity which influence functional behavior, durability and reliability of the whole system. Although there is a lot of knowledge available on temperature and humidity effects it is still a matter of research to investigate the effects of combined environments on complex systems. This contribution lines out the R&D tasks of environmental engineering with special respect on new materials. prolonged life rime and changed mission profiles.