Smoke colors of detonated HE's

[EventHorizon]

I was wondering if someone had a list of the colors of smoke produced from HE's detonating.

A 'friend' tried to detonate 2g TNT using .5g MHN, the report wasn't much different than just MHN, but instead of a small brown cloud, there was a {IMO pretty}blueish/white cloud. The 3mm thick steel it was initiated on showed no effect where the TNT column would have been but did where the MHN was.

In an attempt to detonate nitroguanidine with MHN, this time 10g ng with 1g MHN, the report wasn't much different, although there was a much larger area where the shockwave ripped the grass(~1m circle as opposed to ~.3m with 1g MHN) and the 38mmX102mmX12.5mm thick steel bar showed about 1mm bend (it was placed flat on a peice of wood)as well as a fair size cloud of white smoke.

I'm not certain if my 'friend' was successful as I would have thought that the TNT would have showed some mark in the steel as well as 10g nitroguanidine should have produced a much more noticable report with more damage to the steel.

[This message has been edited by EventHorizon (edited September 09, 2001).]

[green beret]

I'm not sure but I believe I heard somewhere that TNT produces black smoke.

[EventHorizon]

I found one reference in Davis' book that states that in fact TNT detonates and produces black smoke. I'm wondering if a partial detonation would produce the blueish smoke.

[cutefix]

From my observation,it seems to have minor differences;sometimes that varies also with the viewing condition,distance,quantity of explosive used etc.,
The smoke colors from miniscule explosion does not always show similarity as what happens in large scale explosion.Generally an explosive that is not oxygen balance shows greyish to black smoke.The pure TNT exhibits this in large quantities,of blackish smoke) while the ammonium nitrate enriched amatol show a greyish white cloud.Somehow this smoke color can be tainted if there is the presence of fine particle materials in the vicinity that is blended with the smoke of the explosion .Another thing is if there is bright presence of incident light(bright sunshine)it can affect the perception of color compared if the explosion happen in overcast(dark cloudy condition).Anfo itself in blasting conditions shows a brownish smoke,PLX and ANNM shows from bluish to greyish white(again varies according to light condition and explosive quantity).However astrolite G does not show any smoke.at all regardless of quantity and light conditions.Other military HE exhibits similar smoke shades and varies slightly if doped with metals and ammonium nitrate.The explosion of pentolite or composition B and C-4 produces smoke that is lighter than pure TNT itself.I don’t see any difference in smoke cloud among RDX/PETN/HMX.