ORIGINAL HMX
A series of HMX samples was pressed to various densities ranging from 1.24 g/cc to 1.81 g/cc (65% to 95% TMD). The samples were pressed using exactly the same procedure as in the packing of the DDT tube. Several runs were taken of each sample to verify accuracy and repeatability. The original particle size distribution was found to have a mean of about 270 µm, whereas samples pressed to the highest density (1.81 g/cc) had means of about 120 µm. The measured size distributions (by volume percent) are shown in Fig. 2a. Taking the difference between the original distribution and the pressed distributions it becomes clear that certain sized particles were being broken. (see Fig. 2b). We see that particles around 270 µm are being broken up, forming smaller particles whose peak is near 40 µm. The statistical parameters obtained from these measurements are listed in Table 1.
Click here to download raw particle size data
Table 1 Particle size statistics for pressed HMX.
% TMD Mean (µm) Median(µm) Mode (µm) S.D. (µm) Skewness Kurtosis
Poured 192.8 178.2 203.5 127 2.99 19.3
65% 200.3 181.9 223.4 136 2.6 16.8
70% 220 181.8 223.4 222 4.23 23.9
75% 161.9 136.2 203.5 140 3.22 25.5
80% 160.8 137.0 203.5 155 4.24 31.7
85% 144.0 121.0 185.3 128 2.8 19.3
90% 130.8 104.8 185.3 115 1.3 2.4
95% 113.2 92.61 168.8 93 .794 -0.129
*Statistics are according to particle diameter.