Several explosion behaviours of the emulsion explosives sensitized by cenospheres

The paper presents the influence of contents and particle sizes of cenospheres (a product extracted from fly ashes of thermal power plants) on the velocity of detonation (VOD) and brisance of emulsion explosives. Experimental results show that cenospheres are hollow balloons with 95 % of the particles in a range of 60-270 μm, and their main chemical compositions are SiO2 and Al2O3. With cenosphere contents in a range of 10-15 % over 100 % of the emulsion matrix, the VOD reaches approximately 4000 m/s at 31.38 mm of charge diameter and the brisance is in a range of 14-16 mm. In addition, explosives, sensitized by cenospheres smaller than 160 μm, have VOD and brisance are better than which using cenospheres greater than 160 μm or unsieved cenospheres. Emulsion explosives sensitized by 10 % of unsieved cenospheres have maximum VOD of 5409 m/s, explosion heat of 999 cal/g, and work capability of 85 % compared to TNT. © 2020 Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi & Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim