Storage modulus’ variation in aging and its application in assessing the stability of emulsion explosive matrix

An investigation was performed into the stability of bulk emulsion explosive matrix (BEEM) via studying on the variation of storage modulus in aging. The experimental results show that there is a tight relationship between storage modulus (G′) and the stability of BEEM. The increase of the amount of ammonium nitrate (AN) crystals in aging leads to the increase of G′. When the amount of AN crystals reaches a certain extent, the vastly destroyed microstructure results in the disappear of viscoelastic property of BEEM. The results demonstrated that the less growth ratio of G′ causes a better stability of BEEM. The G′ was used to investigate the effect of the nature of emulsifier and continuous phase on the stability of BEEM. It is found that the chemical structure of head group, the length of hydrophobic chain and the content of emulsifier affect the stability of BEEM. Besides that, the viscosity and polarity of continuous phase also have important effect on the stability of BEEM.