Compatibility study of erythritol tetranitrate with some energetic materials

The compatibility of erythritol tetranitrate (ETN) with RDX, CL-20, PETN, TNT, HMX, Picric acid was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Two methods for judging the compatibility level of ETN and conventional explosives are introduced. One method is using the decomposition temperature (Tp) and apparent activation energy (Eo) of the thermal decomposition curve at the heating rate, the compatibility levels of the two explosives can be obtained. The results show that ETN with RDX have good compatibility, level 1; ETN with HMX, CL-20 are fair compatibility, level 2; ETN with PETN, TNT and Picric acid are poor compatibility, level 3. Another method is when apparent activation energy (Eo) is not added, the compatibility levels are different when just used the decomposition temperature (Tp).