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Science and Technology of Energetic Materials

Vol.74, No.5 (2013)

Letter

Relationship between accidents involving spontaneous ignition of nitric acid esters and weather conditions
Katsumi Katoh, Eiko Higashi, Yukiko Ariyoshi, Yuji Wada and Katsuyuki Nakano
p.132-137

Abstract

The weather conditions at the times of accidents involving the spontaneous ignition of nitric acid esters and products based on them were analyzed. When the daily maximum temperature and average relative humidity in the 30 days preceding the accident were examined, it was found that 25 accidents out of the 34 accidents analyzed occurred when the daily maximum temperature was approximately 30℃ for more than ten consecutive days or when the daily maximum temperature increased over 5-10 days to reach a value of 30℃ on the day of the accident. However, the hourly changes in temperature and relative humidity in the 24 hours preceding the accidents indicated that accidents did not always occur when the temperature or relative humidity reached their maximum of the day. From the data on the daily absolute humidity changes for the 30 days preceding the accident, it was found that 27 of the 34 accidents analyzed occurred when the absolute humidity had been constant at 20 gⁱm-3 or approached this value at the instant of the accident. In addition, in 12 of the 16 accidents analyzed, in the 24 hours preceding the accidents, the absolute humidity either increased to or had been constant at approximately 20 gⁱm-3 before the accident.

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Keywords

nitrocellulose, celluloid, spontaneous ignition, self-ignition, degradation

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