Preparation and molecular dynamics simulation of spherical β-HMX by spray drying technology

In this paper, the optimal temperature in an HMX spray-drying process was determined by molecular dynamics simulations and verified using experiments. Using the optimal spray-drying temperature determined by simulations, spherical β-HMX with a uniform particle size distribution was obtained by spray-drying. Performance characterization and thermal analysis of β-HMX were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The impact sensitivity of β-HMX was also measured and analyzed. The molecular dynamics simulations and experimental results both indicated that the optimum spray-drying temperature of HMX was 57°C. At this temperature, an HMX particle diameter range of 1 µm – 5 µm was obtained, and the particles tended to be smooth spheroids. Compared with raw HMX, the Tp0 and critical temperature of thermal explosion of HMX-1 increased by 0.9°C and 0.94°C, respectively. The characteristic drop height of impact sensitivity increased by 32% from 32.05 cm to 42.28 cm.