Explosive and Ballistic Defense Related Terms
Afterburn –Post-detonation combustion as products of detonation mix with the surrounding air. Some explosive materials are not oxygen-balanced and produce fuel rich detonation products. The burning of these products increases flash and will produce quasi-static pressure, if confined. Afterburn is a significant issue for confined explosions and can start post-blast fires. A simple way of looking at it the explosion itself can create combustible materials, such as soot, and these combustible materials can burn so rapidly that they add to the original explosive’s blast effect.
Ammonium Nitrate/Fuel Oil (ANFO) – A crude but effective explosive that is used by farmers to clear stumps and by the mining industry (because it is easy to pump in slurry form) to break up overburden rock and expose ore in open pit mining.
Ballistic Impact – Impact by a ballistic threat such as a bullet or high-velocity projectile, such as shrapnel.
Biological Warfare – Use of any organism (bacteria, virus, or other disease-causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war.
Blast Suppression – A means or system whereby blast effects are reduced by attenuation or absorption of explosive energy.
Bomb Disposal - Making explosive devices safe by disarming or detonating them.
C-4 – Common military plastic explosive. C-4 is made up of explosive, binder, plasticizer and marker or traceable chemicals. The explosive material in C-4 is RDX, about 90% of the C-4 by weight, with the remainder consisting of the binder, polyisobutylene, and the plasticizer, di(2-ethylhexyl) or dioctyl sebacate. The marker or trace chemical varies with the country where the explosive is manufactured.
Chemical Warfare – The use of non-explosive chemical agents as a weapon of war.
Collateral Damage - Inadvertent casualties and destruction inflicted on property or individuals. Unintended damage to material surrounding a controlled explosion.
Deflagration – Chemical reaction in which the reaction front propagates into the un-reacted substance at slower than sonic velocity. The term explosive deflagration may be used when potentially destructive blast wave is produced.
Detonation – Explosive energy release caused by the extremely rapid chemical reaction of a given substance, in which the reaction front propagates into the un-reacted substance at equal to or greater than sonic velocity.
Detonator – Device used to trigger bombs, shape charges, and other explosive devices. Detonators can be a wide variety of chemical and/or mechanical designs, from timers to push-button. Many detonators' us a material called tetryl as the primary means of setting off the explosive device.
Dynamite – A common explosive used in mining, demolitions, and other applications. Invented by Alfred Nobel in 1867, and became successful as a safer alternative to gunpowder, because it explodes less readily.
Explosion – Extremely rapid release of energy that causes a pressure discontinuity or blast wave.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) – Military term that includes reducing any explosive material, from improvised bombs to unexploded ordnance, to a safe condition and disposing of it.
Fast Cook-Off – Unrelated to barbeque grill prowess, this term refers to the explosion of a unit of ammunition or other energetic stores in the case of an uncontrolled fire.
Flash – Visible light and infrared emissions generated by most explosives upon detonation. Near the blast source, the flash can cause severe burns. Some energetic material liberates a significant proportion of its energy as radiated heat with reduced blast.
Fragmentation - The breaking and scattering of the fragments of a projectile, bomb, or grenade, or the breaking of a solid mass into pieces by an explosion.
Ground Shock - Shaking of the ground by elastic waves emanating from a blast. Layers of varying density within the earth can intensify ground shocks.
High-Order Explosions – A type of explosion that releases a high level of heat and produces shock waves. About 50% of the energy in a blast becomes heat, and 50% becomes shock waves.
Impulse – Momentum (= Mass X Velocity) imparted in a blast. Determined mathematically by area under the pressure-time curve. In most cases, impulse is the most damaging effect of a blast.
Improvised Explosive Device (IED) – A homemade bomb or explosive booby trap, typically consisting of an explosive charge, a detonator, and either a mechanical or electronic initiation system.
Insensitive Munition (IM) – Munitions that minimize the chance of accidental initiation and the severity of subsequent collateral damage to weapon platforms, logistic systems, and personnel. IM are munitions which burn when subjected to heating or ballistic attack, and do not detonate when subjected to shape charge jet impact, or when another munition detonates in a stack.
Landmine – Type of explosive munition placed on or in the ground. Triggered by the passage of vehicle or person.
Mitigation – Reducing the risk of an event by acting on the source in a preventive way by reducing the likelihood of occurrence, or in a protective way by reducing the magnitude of the event and/or the exposure of local persons or property.
998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Hum-Vee) - A highly durable military vehicle, largely replacing the jeep as used by the U.S. military.
Nitroglycerin – Heavy, colorless, poisonous, oily explosive liquid obtained by nitrating glycerol. Used in the manufacture of explosives, specifically dynamite, employed by the construction and demolition industries.
Overpressure (or Peak Pressure) – Peak magnitude of the pressure wave, appearing 0.1-5.0 milliseconds after detonation, depending on scaled distance. Safety standards for buildings and inhabited areas are typically based on maximum peak pressures.
Pipe Bomb - Any homemade explosive device encased in a piece of ordinary plumbing pipe.
Plastic Explosive - A specialized form of soft, malleable explosive material, consisting of an explosive mixed with a plastic binding substance. Usable in a wide variety of temperatures and conditions, especially suited for explosive demolition. Can be easily formed into suitable shapes for cutting structural members, and have a high enough velocity of detonation and density for metal-cutting.
Quasi-Static Pressure – In a confined blast, such as in a container or small space, pressure builds until either the walls blow out (vent) or the confined hot gas cools down. The pressure determines required hoop strength in containers and buildings.
Reflected Overpressure – Overpressure reflected from resistant surfaces, theoretically from 2 to 8 times incident pressure in free air.
Scaled Distance – Method used to scale and compare different blasts. Scaled Distance is equal to the distance from charge divided by the cube root of the TNT Net Equivalent Charge Weight.
Secondary Fragmentation - Material close to the explosion that is propelled by the blast.
Slow Cook-Off – Not a crock pot cooking contest, but an explosion of a unit of ammunition or other energetic material in the event of a sustained thermal event less intense than a fire.
Sympathetic Detonation - Results when one detonating unit or energetic material initiates others in a chain-reaction. Caused by an internal high-pressure event being initiated in a store of material, such as from a shock wave or by the impact of a primary or secondary fragment from detonating adjacent munitions.
Tetryl - Sensitive explosive compound used in detonators. Slight yellow in color. Produced by the reaction of a mix of concentrated nitric acid and sulfuric acid on dimethylaniline.
Trinitrotoluene (TNT) - A pale yellow crystalline explosive hydrocarbon compound used my many explosive mixtures.
Unconfined Vapor Cloud Explosion (UCVE) - Explosive oxidation of a vapor cloud in a non-confined space (i.e., not in containers, vessels, buildings, etc.). The flame speed may accelerate to high velocities and produce significant blast overpressure. Vapor cloud explosions in densely packed plant areas, like pipelines for example, may show accelerations in flame speeds and intensification of blast.
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