Full Paper
DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150
Investigation of Fireball Temperatures in Confined
Thermobaric Explosions
Lotfi Maiz,*[a, b] Waldemar A. Trzciński,[a] and Jzef Paszula[a]
Abstract: New composite metalized explosives were stud-
ied. The explosives consisted of two different types of mac-
roscopic granular multi-component RDX-based formula-
tions. In a 0.15 m3 explosion chamber, fireball temperature
histories for numerous cylindrical pressed and layered
charges made from the composites were determined using
optical spectroscopy. For comparison, charges consisting of
simple mixtures instead of the composites as well TNT and
RDX phlegmatized (RDXph) charges were also studied. The
Keywords: Confined explosions · Thermobarics · Composite explosives · Fireball temperature · Aluminum afterburning
1 Introduction
To increase the heat effect of explosion, chemically active
metals mainly aluminum and magnesium are added to con-
densed explosives. Despite that the combustion rate is not
fast enough to enable these metals to take part in the reac-
tions occurring in the detonation zone; they may react
with detonation products and oxygen from air and signifi-
cantly increase the explosion energy [1]. When detonated
in closed spaces, shock wave reflections, and mixing of the
metallic fuel with detonation products and air enhance
more the afterburning reactions. Thermobaric explosives
(TBXs) and enhanced blast explosives (EBXs) belong to this
type of explosive formulations. The detonation of such ma-
terials in a closed space is accompanied by two stages, the
first short anaerobic stage and the second long combustion
stage. This latter, lasting tens of milliseconds, is character-
ized by the reaction of the metallic fuel with detonation
products and oxygen from air. The result is a long lasting
pressure and thermal effects, which increase significantly
the fireball temperature [1, 2]. In this case, the fireball tem-
perature is one of the measurable parameters to evaluate
the combustion effectiveness.
To date, only non-intrusive optical techniques based on
the observation of radiant emissions from the fireball
permit the experimental quantification of fireball tempera-
ture, and next, when and where the metallic additives burn
(using direct in situ measurements of explosive fireballs is
difficult because of the short time scales and the extreme
environments of high temperatures and pressures) [3–5].
The use of optical methods to determine temperature
dates to 1958, when Gibson et al. [6] used electro-optical
methods in an attempt to determine detonation tempera-
DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150  2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
influence of the structure of the macroscopic granular com-
posite, the charge type (pressed charge or layered charge
with an RDXph core), oxygen availability (air or argon at-
mosphere) and aluminum particle size on the fireball tem-
perature and the combustion of the aluminum powder
were determined. The measured temperatures were com-
pared with the theoretical ones calculated by assuming dif-
ferent activity of the aluminum fuel.
tures in high explosives. Recently Ogura et al. [7] used two
four-color pyrometers to study fireballs temperature gener-
ated upon the explosion of 1–100 kg of TNT. It was shown
in Ref. [8] that pyrometry techniques alone may be not
enough to properly determine temperature of aluminized
formulation fireballs.
In fact, in optical pyrometry, temperature is estimated
from Wien’s relation using the measured intensities (radi-
ance) at two different wavelengths under the assumption
that grey body type radiation are emitted from the fireball
[5, 7–9]. However; if the explosives are metalized such as
thermobaric formulations, strong absorption lines may
appear on the continuous spectrum. Moreover, sodium and
less frequently potassium emission lines were also ob-
served from emission spectra recorded from homogeneous
high explosives fireballs [5, 10, 11]. Consequently, erroneous
results and conclusions may be derived if one (or more) of
the pyrometer’s working wavelengths coincides with such
emission or absorption lines of the gaseous spectra. Gor-
oshin et al. [11] used time integrated spectroscopy to assist
in the choice of the working wavelengths when using
[a] L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, J. Paszula
Military University of Technology
Advanced Technology and Chemistry
Kaliskiego 2
Warsaw 00 908, Poland
*e-mail: maiz_lotfi@hotmail.com
[b] L. Maiz
Ecole Militaire Polytechnique
UER Chimie applique
BP 17, Bordj-el-Bahri, Algiers, Algeria
&1&
These are not the final page numbers! ÞÞ
Full Paper L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, J. Paszula

a three color optical pyrometer. Fireball temperature histor-

ies of homogeneous charges (TNT and sensitized NM) and
heterogeneous charges (NM/Al, NM/Mg and MN/Zr) have
been estimated. It was found that after tens of miliseconds
fireball temperatures of metalized explosives were about
700 to 800 K higher than temperature of the corresponding
homogeneous explosive, these differences were attributed
the burning of the metallic fuel. The influence of confine-
ment on temperature history at a late stage of explosion of
TNT and a RISAL thermobaric explosive (RDX/isopropyl ni-
trate/Al/aerosol 29/53/14.5/3.5 wt-%) was also investigated
by B. E. Gelfand et al. [12]. The RISAL fireball explosion tem-
perature increased by 500 K compared to free field detona-
tion. Unlike the thermobaric formulation the influence of
confinement on the TNT afterburning was insignificant. Un-
fortunately, just limited numbers of papers dealing with
such investigations have been published and a lack of fire- Figure 1. Schematic of the investigated pressed charge:1 – com-
ball temperature data is noted in the literature. posite or mixture, 2 – detonator.
In the presented work the data collected from emission
spectroscopy are directly used to estimate fireball tempera-
tures of classical explosives and a number of new thermo-
baric composite formulations in confined explosions. These
temperature results are obtained by a polychromatic fitting
method [13]. The effect of several parameters on the fire-
ball temperature history is also determined using optical
spectroscopy results. An attempt was undertaken to esti-
mate the activity of the metallic fuel contained in the ther-
mobaric explosives from the experiment data and thermo-
chemical study.

2 Experimental Approach
2.1 Characteristics of Charges
Layered and pressed cylindrical charges containing differ- Figure 2. Schematic of the investigated layered charge: 1 –
ent composite formulations were used in the study. Cross RDXph, 2 – composite or mixture, 3 – paper tube, 4 – detonator.
sections of the pressed and layered charges are shown in
Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively. The composite formula-
tions used for charges elaboration were in a form of macro-
scopic multi-component energetic granules prepared by
using so called “wet method” [14, 15]. As shown in
Figure 3, these granules have homogeneous or core-shell
structure (A or B) and contain cyclo-1,3,5-trimethylene-
2,4,6-trinitramine (RDX), ammonium perchlorate (AP), alumi-
num (Al) and Viton. Moreover, layered and pressed cylindri-
cal charges containing simple mixtures of these compo- Figure 3. Structures of the macroscopic multi-components gran-
nents were prepared (C). For comparison, pressed TNT (tri- ules prepared by the wet method: A – homogeneous configura-
nitrotoluene, with a density of 1.53 g cm3) charges and tion, B – core-shell configuration.
pressed RDXph (RDX phlegmatized by 6 % of wax) charges
with a density of 1.69 g cm3 were made. Compositions and
characteristics of each composite heterogeneous charge tween 44 and 149 mm) and symbol a corresponds to a type
are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2. of composite configuration or mixture (A, B, or C). All
Pressed charges are named hereafter as TBX-x1-a, and tested charges, namely composite pressed, composite lay-
the layered ones as TBX-x2-a, where symbol x denotes ered, pressed TNT and pressed RDXph had the same mass
a type of aluminum (1 – fine Al (Al1) with particles size of 43 g. The diameter of pressed charges was 25 mm. The
below 44 mm or 2 – coarse Al (Al2) with particle sizes be- cylindrical layered charge consisted of a core of RDXph and

&2& www.pep.wiley-vch.de  2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150
ÝÝ These are not the final page numbers!
Fireball Temperatures in Confined Thermobaric Explosions

Table 1. Composition and characteristics of cylindrical pressed charges.

TBX-11-A TBX-21-A TBX-11-B TBX-21-B TBX-11-C TBX-21-C
Constituent [wt-%]
RDX 50 50 50 50 50 50
Al 30 (Al1) 30 (Al2) 30 (Al1) 30 (Al2) 30 (Al1) 30 (Al2)
AP 10 10 10 10 10 10
Binder 10 (Viton) 10 (Viton) 10 (Viton) 10 (Viton) 10 (Viton) 10 (Viton)
Composite/mixture granules A granules A granules B granules B mixture mixture
Density [g cm3] 1.87 1.90 1.73 1.74 1.76 1.79

Table 2. Composition and characteristics of cylindrical layered charges.

TBX-12-A TBX-22-A TBX-12-C TBX-22-C
Constituent [wt-%]
RDX 50 50 50 50
Al 30 (Al1) 30 (Al2) 30 (Al1) 30 (Al2)
AP 10 10 10 10
Binder 6.6 + 3.4 (Viton + wax) 6.6 + 3.4 (Viton + wax) 6.6 + 3.4 (Viton + wax) 6.6 + 3.4 (Viton + wax)
Core/layer RDXph/granules A RDXph/granules A RDXph/mixture RDXph/mixture
Density [g cm3] 1.69/1.23 1.69/1.23 1.69/1.21 1.69/1.22

an external layer containing the composites or mixtures,
the diameter d of the core was 16 mm, the external cylin-
der was a paper tube having a thickness of about 2 mm
and an external diameter D of 30 mm.
2.2 Experimental Site
Experiments were performed in a closed explosion cham-
ber of 0.15 m3 volume. Dimensions of the explosion cham-
ber are shown in Figure 4. The tested charge was hung in
the center of the chamber. A reinforced optic fiber was
placed in the wall of the chamber in such away to be di-
rected to the charge. An electrical standard detonator was
enough to detonate all layered charges, pressed TBX-A,
TNT and RDXph charges, however, a booster consisting of
5 g of pressed RDXph was necessary to initiate the detona-
tion of TBX-B charges and TBX-C pressed charges. First
tests were carried in air atmosphere under normal pressure
of about 0.1 MPa and at ambient temperature. Then TBX-A
charges were selected for tests in argon under the same
conditions. In both air and argon atmospheres, at least
three tests were performed for each investigated charge.
Light from the fireball was collected by the reinforced optic
fiber sensor and later sent to a spectrometer via an optic
fiber cable. Data were transferred from the spectrometer to
a laptop computer and treated using the manufacturer
software. Taking into account results of previous works
[10, 16–18], the first light intensity spectrum was recorded
one millisecond after the electrical ignition signal to the
detonation (hereafter denoted as t = 0) from a distance of
about 29 cm and the following spectrums approximately
each 3 ms. Also, spectrums were collected in the visible
and infrared range of wavelengths (from 300 nm to
1100 nm). According to the manufacturer, the used type of
fiber reaches a constant transmittance of about 85 % from
500 nm wavelength to more than 1000 nm

3 Results and Discussion

Figure 4. Schematic of the 0.15 m3 semi-closed bunker (side view):
1 – explosive charge, 2 – fiber optic sensor, 3 – spectrometer, 4 –
external trigger, 5 – computer.
3.1 Fireball Spectra
Features and global shape of the recorded fireball spectra
(but not the intensities) were found to be mainly depen-
dent on the chemical composition of the explosives (TNT,
RDXph or aluminized charges) and the oxygen availability.
Indeed, these spectra were independent from the charge
type (namely pressed or layered charges) and the type of
the used aluminum. Under the same conditions, the spec-
troscopic results were reproducible for each charge (three
shots). Exemplary fireball spectra are shown in Figure 5.
The spectra from charges detonation in air exhibit several

DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150 www.pep.wiley-vch.de  2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim &3&
These are not the final page numbers! ÞÞ
Full Paper L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, J. Paszula

emitters in the fireball. The fiber optic transmittance does

not reach yet its maximal constant value bellow 500 nm
and very noisy data were collected in the region above
950 nm, the signal intensities were almost in the same level
as the electronic background. Consequently, the wave-
length interval was taken between 500 to 950 nm during
calculations. Firstly, the spectral radiation intensity (or radi-
ance) was obtained from the raw signal collected by the
spectrometer. The sensitivity curve was determined using
a tungsten halogen standard calibration lamp. By multiply-
ing the experimental recorded intensity by the spectrome-
ter and the sensitivity corresponding to each wavelength,
values of the real radiances were determined (similarly to
Ref. [18]). Wien’s relation relates the radiance Ll to tempera-
ture and is expressed as follow

where a is a constant if grey body-type radiations are as-

sumed to be emitted from the fireballs and C2 = hc/k =
1,439  104 mm K, h is the Planck constant, c is the speed of
light, and k is the Boltzmann constant. Equation (1) is valid
only for small values of lT, that is for exp(C2/lT) @ 1. This re-
lation is accurate to within 1 % for lT less than 3000 mm K
with Planck equation [13, 19]. Both sides of Equation (1) are
positive and the equation is equivalent to:

Figure 5. Typical collected light-intensity spectrum at about 4 ms Hence, temperature can be simply deduced by a linear
after detonation in the chamber filled with air and argon. approximation using Equation (2) to fit the experimental
variation of ln(Ll l5) in function of 1/l (see Figure 6, adjust-
broad emission lines with very small intensities (probably ed correlation coefficient R2 is 99.97 % which means that
be the sum of the contribution of several species) as well
as very sharp intense lines at 589, 766, and 769 nm. These
lines are contributed to Na (sodium) and K (potassium) im-
purities, respectively [5, 10, 11].
Moreover, aluminized charges show a double atomic
band at 520 and 525 nm contributed to the gaseous mo-
lecular AlO (B2 + S!X2S + ) [5, 11]. Unlike detonation in air,
when detonated in an argon atmosphere, all recorded
spectra were continuous and free from any emission or ab-
sorption peaks approaching grey body radiation behavior
(probably not enough energy is available for the species to
emit because part of detonation energy is absorbed by
argon). Also, no light was collected from five RDXph (43 g)
trials in the argon atmosphere.

3.2 Fireball Temperature Estimation

The continuous part of the fireball spectra of each explo- Figure 6. Linear polychromatic fitting of the spectral intensity to
sive was used to derive temperature of the condensed Wien’s law.

&4& www.pep.wiley-vch.de  2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150
ÝÝ These are not the final page numbers!
Fireball Temperatures in Confined Thermobaric Explosions

a is constant and grey-body radiations type were veritably

emitted from the fireballs). Value of the slope b = C2/T is de-
termined and temperature can be calculated in Equation (3)
[13]:

The fireball temperatures for all charges detonated in air

and argon atmospheres are shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8
respectively. Optical methods can be used to estimate tem-
peratures only during the period where the heat trans-
ferred by radiation is predominant. This duration corre-
sponds exactly to the time of lightning of the explosion
fireball. This is why the temperature results were obtained
for different period of time depending on the charge. It
can be observed also that fireball temperatures drop quick-
ly during the first period of registration and tend to more
or less a constant value with time. In fact, a few millisec-
onds after detonation, temperatures are high due to the
shock waves reverberations from the chambers wall and
the reactions between detonation products, aluminum and
air (if it is present). But due to turbulences inside the cham-
ber some equilibrium state is attained with time and the
temperature tend to equalize in the entire volume of the
chamber. This late time temperature can be considered as
the final fireball temperature.
Aluminum powder size, charge type, and composite
structures (A, B or mixtures C) affect the measured temper-
atures. In fact, the fireball temperatures of pressed charges
with big aluminum particle size are clearly higher than
those with smaller aluminum particles by a minimum
200 K. This difference is very small in the case of layered
charges where temperature profiles are similar. This means
that kinetic and probably mechanism of aluminum reaction
are different in the case Al1 and Al2 particles. The latter
probably moves far from the center of the chamber and
can react more effectively with oxygen from air. If it comes
to comparison between the charge types, pressed compo-
site charges generate higher fireball temperatures than lay-
ered charges and this is true for both aluminum particle
sizes. The explosion process of pressed charges inside the
confined explosion chamber provides better conditions for
the combustion of aluminum particles, probably during the
Figure 7. Temperature profiles of the charges detonated in the ex-
anaerobic explosion stage, in which the aluminum reacts
plosion chamber filled with air derived from the continuous spec-
with the detonation products (better mixing, better contact tra.
between the chemical species in the early time). This in-
creases the temperature and makes the aluminum powder
ready to react with oxygen from air after mixing in the last by the spectrometer for all shots (3 shots for RDXph and 6
aerobic stage. When layered charges are detonated the shots for TNT). This means that the afterburning reactions
macroscopic particles move quickly into air and the second of the detonation products were not able to sustain an ex-
combustion stage, which prepare the aluminum to react plosion fireball in the absence of oxygen. Concerning alu-
with oxygen is shorter. Temperatures could not be mea- minized charges detonated in argon, the values of the mea-
sured for homogeneous charges when detonated in an sured fireballs temperatures are smaller than those mea-
argon atmosphere, simply because no light was recorded sured in air (about 700 K and 200 K lower for pressed and

DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150 www.pep.wiley-vch.de  2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim &5&
These are not the final page numbers! ÞÞ
Full Paper
Figure 8. Temperature profiles of the charges detonated in the ex-
plosion chamber filled with argon derived from the continuous
spectra.
layered charges respectively) because of the lack of
oxygen. Unfortunately, comparison of the obtained results
with similar works available in the literature was not possi-
ble because no data concerning the confined explosions of
similar formulations are available.
3.3 Thermochemical Calculation
Thermochemical calculations were made to estimate the
theoretical equilibrium temperatures in the explosion
chamber filled with air and argon. The constant volume ex-
plosion state was determined for an explosive charge and
gas closed in the chamber. Several values of equilibrium
temperature were determined assuming an aluminum ac-
tivity varying from 0 to 100 % (percent of aluminum, which
can participate in reaction). CHEETAH code with modified li-
brary was used for this purpose with the set of values of
the BKW parameters: a = 0.50, b = 0.40, k = 10.86 and q =
5441 [20]. The fuse explosive (PETN) was included in the
calculation. For TBX-11-B, TBX-21-B, TBX-11-C, TBX-21-C, the
5 g RDXph booster was also taken into consideration. The
dependence of calculated temperatures on the percent of
active aluminum is presented in Figure 9. Concerning alu-
minized charges; obviously, the temperature inside the
chamber increase when the percent of active aluminum in
the composition increase. It is worth to notice that, even
the heat generated from aluminized charges detonated in
air is much higher than in argon (lack of oxygen from air),
surprisingly, the gap in the calculated theoretical tempera-
tures is relatively small. This results from the differences in
heat capacities of the gases filling the chamber. For the
temperature range from 298.5 to 3000 K the heat capacity
of argon in the chamber is constant and is equal only to
72.8 J K1, whereas the heat capacity of air increases from
129.3 to 181.6 J K1.
When the fireball temperatures measured in the chamber
filled with air are compared to the calculated ones, it is ob-
&6& www.pep.wiley-vch.de  2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
ÝÝ These are not the final page numbers!
L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, J. Paszula
Figure 9. Dependence of the theoretical temperature on the alu-
minum activity for the charges detonated in the explosion cham-
ber filled with air or argon.
served that all experimental temperatures are lower than
the theoretical calculated for 100 % active aluminum but
significantly higher than those estimated under the as-
sumption of non-reactivity of aluminum particles. This indi-
cates that aluminum from the compositions reacts with
detonation products and air in the chamber resulting in an
additional heat, which increases temperature of the gas-
eous mixture. This conclusion is confirmed by the analysis
of the solid residue recovered from the chamber after deto-
nation of aluminized explosives [14, 21]. Aluminum oxide
was the main component of this residue. However, the pre-
cise determination of the reaction degree of aluminum
from Figure 9 on the basis of the temperature measured in
the chamber is not possible due to the changing of the
latter in time. Calculated equilibrium temperatures for TNT
and RDXph detonated in the air filler are 2758 K and
2423 K, respectively. The latter is higher of about 300–400 K
than the temperature measured during the first 20 ms after
the detonation, while in the case of TNT charge these tem-
peratures are comparable.
Afterburning reactions in the chamber filled with argon
are quickly stopped and the liberated energy is small as
prove the experimental results of temperature. However,
despite the effect of argon, the measured fireballs tempera-
tures are higher than the equilibrium temperatures calcu-
lated for inert aluminum. This means that aluminum takes
part in the anaerobic afterburning reactions with the hot
detonation products and the AP decomposition products.
In this case, aluminum oxide and aluminum nitrate are
present in the calculated explosion products as well as in
the solid residue from the chamber [14, 21].
4 Summary
Fireball temperature histories of new composite thermobar-
ic formulations were determined in confined explosions
DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150
Fireball Temperatures in Confined Thermobaric Explosions
inside a chamber filled with air or argon. Even the composi-
tion and mass of charges containing these composites
were the same: differences in fireball temperatures are ob-
served. Results showed that the charge type, pressed or
layered strongly affects the generated temperatures. The
aluminum powder particle size influences the fireball tem-
peratures in the case of pressed charges. Comparison of all
obtained results with the thermochemical data showed
that only part of the fuel (aluminum powder) contained in
the compositions reacts and that oxygen (air) enhances the
late afterburning reactions especially for pressed charges.
Finally, this work may be a contribution for the existing lit-
erature since measurement of fireball temperatures during
expansion of the detonation products is problematic and
often omitted by explosives’ community even it is of capital
importance for analysis of the thermobarics explosion pro-
cess in confined volumes.
References
[1] W. A. Trzciński, L. Maiz, Thermobaric and Enhanced Blast Ex-
plosives – Properties and Testing Methods (Review), Propel-
lants Explos. Pyrotech. 2015, 40, 632–644.
[2] T. M. Klapçtke, Chemistry of High-Energy Materials, Walter de
Gruyter, Berlin, 2011, pp. 184–185.
[3] J. M. Gordon, M. T. Spidell, J. Pitz, K. C Gross, G. P. Perram, High
Speed Spectral Measurements of IED Detonation Fireballs,
Proc. SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 2010, 7665.
[4] M. T. Spidell, J. M. Gordon, J. Pitz, K. C Gross, G. P. Perram, High
Speed Radiometric Measurements of IED Detonation Fireballs,
Proc. SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 2010, 7668.
[5] S. Goroshin, J. Mamen, A. Higgins, T. Bazyn, N. Glumac, H.
Krier, Emission Spectroscopy of Flame Fronts in Aluminum
Suspensions, Proc. Combust. Inst. 2007, 31, 2011–2019.
[6] F. Gibson, M. Bowser, C. Summers, F. Scott, C. Mason, Use of
Electro-Optical Method to Determine Detonation Tempera-
tures in High Explosives, J. Appl. Phys. 1958, 29, 628.
[7] T. Ogura, K. Okada, T. Abe, K. Wakabayashi, K. Ishikawa, E.
Kuroda, T. Matsumura, Y. Nakayama, M. Yoshida, Pyrometry
Study on Fireballs Generated Upon the Explosion of TNT, 34th
Int. Annual Conference of ICT, Karlsruhe, Germany, June 24–27,
2003.
[8] R. J. Pahl, M. J. Kaneshige, Post-Detonation Aluminum Particle
Temperature Measurement for Thermobaric Explosives Using
Two-Color Pyrometry, 31st International Pyrotechnics Seminar,
Fort Collins, CO, USA, July 11–16, 2004.
DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150 www.pep.wiley-vch.de
[9] B. Leal, G. Baudin, J. C. Goutelle, H.-N. Presles, An Optical Pyro-
meter for Time Resolved Temperature Measurements in a Det-
onation Wave, 11th International Symposium on Detonation,
Snowmass Village, CO, USA, August 31–September 4, 1998,
p. 353.
[10] W·K Lewis, G. G. Rumchik, Measurement of Apparent Tempera-
ture in Post-Detonation Fireballs Using Atomic Emission Spec-
troscopy, J. Appl. Phys. 2009, 105, 056104.
[11] S.Goroshin, D. L. Frost, J. Levine, A. Yoshinaka, F. Zhang, Opti-
cal Pyrometry of Fireballs of Metalized Explosives, Propellants
Explos. Pyrotech. 2006, 31, 169–181.
[12] B. E. Gelfand, S. P. Medvedev, S. V. Khomik, M. V. Silikov, Com-
parative Study of Pressure-Temperature Effects from TNT and
RDX-IPN-Al Explosions, 20th International Symposium on Milita-
ry Aspects of Blast and Shock, Oslo, Norway, September 1–5,
2008.
[13] L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, J. Paszula, Optical Spectroscopy to
Study Confined and Semi-Closed Explosions of Homogeneous
and Composite Charges, Opt. Laser Eng. 2017, 88, 111–119.
[14] L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, M. Szala, J. Paszula, Studies of Confined
Explosions of Composite Explosives and Layered Charges,
Cent. Eur. J. Energ. Mater. submitted.
[15] L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, M. Szala, Preparation and Testing of
Thermobaric Composites, 18th Seminar on New Trends in Re-
search of Energetic Materials, Pardubice, Czech Republic, April
15–17, 2015, 705–715.
[16] J. M. Peuker, P. Lynch, H. Krier, N. Glumac, Optical Depth Mea-
surement of Fireballs from Aluminized Explosives, Opt. Laser
Eng. 2009, 47, 1009–1015.
[17] J. M. Peuker, Using Optical Techniques to Measure Aluminum
Burning in Post-Detonation Explosive Fireballs, Doctorate
Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA,
2012.
[18] L. S. Lebel, P. Brousseau, L. Erhardt, W. S. Andrews, Measure-
ments of the Fireball Temperature Inside an Explosive Fireball,
J. Appl. Phys. 2013, 80.
[19] R. Siegel, J. R. Howell, Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, 4th ed.,
Taylor & Francis, New York, 2002, p. 17.
[20] L. E. Fried, P. C. Souers, BKWC: An Empirical BKW Parametriza-
tion Based on Cylinder Test Data, Propellants Explos. Pyrotech.
1996, 21, 215.
[21] W. A. Trzciński, K. Barcz, J. Paszula, S. Cudziło, Investigation of
Blast Performance and Solid Residues for Layered Thermobaric
Charges, Propellants Explos. Pyrotech. 2014, 39, 40.
Received: June 16, 2016
Revised: August 17, 2016
Published online: && &&, 0000
 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim &7&
These are not the final page numbers! ÞÞ
Full Paper L. Maiz, W. A. Trzciński, J. Paszula

FULL PAPERS
L. Maiz,* W. A. Trzciński, J. Paszula
&& – &&
Investigation of Fireball
Temperatures in Confined
Thermobaric Explosions

&8& www.pep.wiley-vch.de  2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim DOI: 10.1002/prep.201600150
ÝÝ These are not the final page numbers!