Scale-Up of a Crystallizer for Production of Nano-Sized Energetic Materials

The outstanding sensitivity of high-energetic materials such as cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (HMX) has prompted efforts by researchers in the production of less sensitive explosives by crystallization without compromising performance. One such endeavor is crystal-size reduction to nano-scales. The optimum operating conditions for producing nano-sized RDX were experimentally determined. Based on these results, computational fluid dynamics modeling and simulations were executed for scale-up purposes and identification of the influence of fluid dynamics, mixing, and heat transfer on crystal growth and production rate on commercial scales. As a result, a commercial plant was designed and operation data from the commercial crystallizers were compared with data obtained from scale-up tasks.