[AR] Re: ADN Q?

From: "Anthony Cesaroni" <anthony@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2019 12:56:16 -0400

Henry,

It's a high explosive to begin with. When we were working on exotics, the
government was kind enough to send me a vintage, Atlantic Research dual
helicone mixer to putz with. As evidenced in the photo below, it appeared to
have survived a blade strike in its lifetime so I refused to commission it
and sent it back. It was really better suited to processing PBX than
composite propellant anyway. The machine was quite stout and weighed about
5000 pounds. In any event, it ended up back at Val Cartier. One day they
were mixing around 30Kg or so of ADN propellant in it and there was an
earth shattering kaboom. The biggest piece of the mixer they found was
around the size of a quarter. The facility repair bill was 7 figures.

Anthony J. Cesaroni

President/CEO

Cesaroni Technology/Cesaroni Aerospace

http://www.cesaronitech.com/

(941) 360-3100 x101 Sarasota

(905) 887-2370 x222 Toronto

-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of Henry Spencer
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2019 12:38 PM
To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AR] Re: ADN Q?

On Tue, 9 Jul 2019, <mailto:snyder@xxxxxxxxxx> snyder@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

...I would like to ask about ADN. (Ammonium DiNitramide) Now it seems

that mixing it with methanol/et,al. and calling it a green liquid

mono-propellant is popular, but it is a solid first...

One small note of caution on the liquid monoprop side: mixing it with
methanol etc. (typically with some water present as well) *can* produce a
so-called-green monopropellant, but it can much more easily produce a liquid
high explosive.

*Serious* caution is required in working with such things, including
starting out with the assumption that your chosen mix *is* a dangerous
explosive, until you have tested it thoroughly for explosion hazard.

Consider also the question of what happens if you spill some and don't
notice it right away, and the water -- which stabilizes the mixture --
starts to evaporate off. (The enthusiastic papers about the wonders of
"green" monopropellants don't discuss this for some reason...)

Henry

Follow-Ups:
- [AR] Re: ADN Q?
  - From: Craig Fink

References:
- [AR] ADN Q?
  - From: snyder

[AR] Re: ADN Q?

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