Brazilian disc testing of a UKPBX above and below the glass transition temperature

Previous research at room temperature and quasi-static loading rates has shown that above the glass transition conditions of their binders, PBX Brazilian disc specimens fail by the localisation of strain in binder rich areas, followed by debonding of the binder from the largest energetic crystals. Crystal fracture is rare and the process is predominantly intergranular. In contrast we show, for a UK PBX, that when the temperature is reduced to below the glass transition condition of the binder system, failure becomes predominantly transgranular. Such data are required for the development and validation of PBX micromechanical models. This paper outlines the current state of research and details the important observations to date.