Predicting High Explosive Detonation Velocities from their composition and structure

A simple, empirical linear relationship between detonation velocity at theoretical maximum density and a factor, F, that is dependent solely upon chemical composition and structure is postulated for a gamut of ideal explosives. The explosives ranged from nitroaromatics, cyclic and linear nitramines, nitrate esters and nitro‐nitrato aliphatics to zero hydrogen explosives, carbonless explosives and hydrogen rich explosives. Of the 64 explosives evaluated, 95% had calculated detonation velocity values within 5% of experimental and 98% within 7%. Only nitromethan varied grossly (−; 13%) from calculated velocity and the absolute error for all explosives is ±2.3%.