20MM Hexagon Ammunition

[Kurfürst]

From my little explosives book, which is I believe a learning material for explosive disarmer experts (? correct E term ?) here.

It goes for Hexogen as (sorry for the clumsy terminus technicus) :

Hexogen
gas volume = 798 lit/kg
explosive heat = 6025 KJ/kg (1300 kcal/kg)
Explosive temperature = 4100 celsius
speed of detonation = 8750 m/sec
Trauzl-test = 475 mililiters
Hess-test = 24 mm

Nitropenta

gas volume = 780 lit/kg
explosive heat = 5895 KJ/kg (1460 kcal/kg)
Explosive temperature = 4500 celsius
speed of detonation = 8400 m/sec
Trauzl-test = 523 mililiters
Hess-test = 24 mm

TNT

gas volume = 620 lit/kg
explosive heat = 5066 KJ/kg (656 kcal/kg)
Explosive temperature = 2400 celsius
speed of detonation = 6800-6900 m/sec
Trauzl-test = 300 mililiters
Hess-test = 13 mm

Tetril

gas volume = 710 lit/kg
explosive heat = n/a KJ/kg (908 kcal/kg)
Explosive temperature = 3350 celsius
speed of detonation = 7200 m/sec
Trauzl-test = 430 cube centimeters (typo?)
Hess-test = 19 mm


Can someone tell the difference between the Hess tests and Trauzl tests, these are standard measurement methods but the book is rather clumsy in explaining them (at least to me).

[Tomislav Haramincic]

Originally Posted by Tony Williams

It was accordingly usually desensitised by adding about 15% of Montan wax to produce Penthrite Wax, or Nitropenta.

Hello Tony,

To my knowledge Nitropenta is not a mixture of Penthrite and wax. It's a commercial name for pure Penthrite, very often used in Europe. Montan wax is a type of wax produced from lignite (brown coal).

I've also noticed that according the german documents which describe the MG151/20 rounds, the explosive component in the round is always Nitropenta + a certain percentage of phlegmatizer. The phlegmatizer is wax.
Furhter, incendiary rounds (Brandgeschosse) are mosty a combination of Nitropenta, wax and Elektron-Thermite or Phosphorus. Only Minen-Geschosse used the HA.41 composition.


all the best,
Tomislav