Sensitivity (explosives)

In explosives engineering, sensitivity refers to the degree to which an explosive can be initiated by impact, heat, or friction. Current in-use standard methods of mechanical (impact and friction) senstivity determination differ by the sample preparation (constant mass or volume is usually used; pile or pressed pellet), sample arrangement (confined/unconfined sample etc), instrument type, go/not go criteria, and the statistical analysis of results.

Sensitivity, stability and brisance are three of the most significant properties of explosives that affect their use and application. All explosive compounds have a certain amount of energy required to initiate, analogous to the minimum ignition energy of fuel-air mixtures. If an explosive is too sensitive, it may go off accidentally. A safer explosive is less sensitive and will not explode if accidentally dropped or mishandled. However, such explosives are more difficult to initiate intentionally.