I did a quick search and only found nitromethane mixes. Has anyone been successful at detonating plain nitromethane? I'm also interested in the vod of nitromethane.

Asking these questions cause I ran acsross a file I must have d/l'd some time ago of what looked to be about a .7-1L of nitromethane being detonated in a glass cylinder, looked impressive.

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-chance favors a prepared mind-
PGP ID 0x147CEF54

As far as I know NM can be detonated alone,but with difficulty(requires powerful booster).Nitromethane,whether sensitized or not(and as long it is in high concentration) had a VODmax about 6200m/s.

On the Yarchive, Gerald Hurst tells a story about how he was testing NM sensitivity ( with some company; not on his own ) by dropping barrels of it from planes and firing at it with different types of guns.
He says that a barrel of (unsensitized) NM would not detonate from the impact of a .50 cal HMG but a 20 mm high explosive MG round would do the trick.
However, in very specific conditions, NM can experience an increase in sensitivity, which can cause very large lots to explode.

I just went to university library and found an interesting article! The Low Velocity Detonation of Nitromethane (alone). I thought they tested it with an pipe filled with NM and a VoD probe, and at the other site a few grams tetryl charge plus blasting cap. I will scan it when I am at home and put it online...

This has been discussed before, but I'll post it anyway because it fits to the topic:
NM can be made cap sensitive simply by foaming it with a (inert) gas.
There's a system called LEXFOAM(R) which is used for mine removal. Its just simply NM foamed with propane. VoD ~3500m/s. There are several pages about it. A good one is http://www.demining.brtrc.com/catalog/contents/clearn42.htm




[This message has been edited by PYREX (edited September 21, 2001).]

I have a video of detonating pure NM here:

http://donuttyfiles.50megs.com/vids/knowledge/

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...AAGH! It Burns!...

it won't let me in!!! it keeps asking for a password http://theforum.virtualave.net/ubb/smilies/frown.gif

Thats the one I was talking about. Doesn't look like its a very big booster, I'll tell my friend to use 2g MHN, maybe that would do it.

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-chance favors a prepared mind-
PGP ID 0x147CEF54

I have scanned the article. Have a look:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~pichon/NM_PEP.pdf