Ballistics and Explosives

Recommended Prerequisites

Appropriate completed 1st cycle 

Teaching Methods

Presentation of the material by the Professors in classical teaching classes. These will also involve the active participation of the students. The laboratory component will involve performing both practical and theoretical studies. There will also be a component involving final presentation of a written themed monograph (which could be associated with one of the laboratory studies which was carried out) and which will be made by the student at the end of the semester.

Learning Outcomes

Recognize and apply basic princilpes and concepts of chemistray in the area of explosives and ballistics. Analyse, synthesise and understand essential concepts so that you can provide a judgement in this domain.

Acquire competences which will allow you to communicate the information obtained in a clear fashion and with an appropriate presentation with both specialists and nonspecialists in the area in a clear and unambiguous fashion. Know how to estabish and justify decisions taken. Know how to apply your knowledge to resolve problems in forensics.   

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Introduction to explosives. Examples:gunpowder, nitrocellulose, TNT, RDX, PETN, nitroglicerine, Hg(CNO)2, PbN3, ammonium nitrate, dinamite, plastic explosives. Military compositions.

Physical, chemical and mixed explosions. Primary and secondary explosives. Formulations.

Physical and chemical aspects of combustion. Deflagration-detonation. Propagation of detonantion shock waves. Efects on the volocity of detonation. Ignition, initiation and thermal decomposition.

Thermochemistry. The oxygen balance. Heats of formation and explosion. Volume of gaseous products and explosion temperature. Explosive power andpower index. Rates of reaction and activation energies of explosive reactions.   Chain reactions.

Insrumental methods of analysis. Sensors.

Composition of propellants for firearms and for rockets. Additives. Liquid and high energy propellants. Introduction to ballistics. Microscopic, spectroscopic and chromatographic methods to detect and identify residues from firearms.    

Assessment Methods

Continuous assessment
Laboratory work or Field work: 25.0%
Research work: 25.0%
Exam: 50.0%

Bibliography

Chemistry of Explosives, J. Akhavan, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2004

Propellants and Explosives, N. Kubota, Wiley-VCH, Chichester, 2001

Adicionalmente, e dadas as características da disciplina, principalmente para preparar e resolver os casos propostos, os alunos terão de consultar fontes bibliográficas diversificadas: livros, artigos científicos, portais da internet e outros documentos diversos/additionally, and taking into account the course characteristics, mainly to prepare and solve the proposed cases, students will have to consult diverse bibliographic sources: books, papers, Internet portals and other miscellaneous documents