Methods for Small Scale Characterisation of Energetic Materials

This report provides an overview of the different small scale characterisation methods that exist today for energetic materials. An overview of different methods and the standards, which can be used in the specific methods are presented. There are several standards for most of the methods described in this report. All existing standards are not listed, since many countries have their own military standards for characterisation of energetic materials. The standards that are listed are the ones most frequently applied by FOI, such as Swedish standards, Swedish military standards, NATO standards (STANAG), the standards in the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the U.S. military standards. In this report, a method is considered as small scale if the sample needed for the test is smaller than 100 g. However, some methods exceeding 100 g are included, since they provide understanding of energetic materials and their behaviour. Small scale methods are useful in the development of new energetic materials and the amount of the substance is limited. Standards are essential to allow comparison of results from different test institutes, laboratories and countries.