Carbon nanotube bomb?

[Dirigible]

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/mech-tech/mg18825267.000

So, I'm wondering, could you make a fuel air bomb out of nanotubes? If so, how would it stack up power-wise against more conventional FABs? Part of their effectiveness is based on the surface area of the fuel spray; wouldn't the nanotubes stack up pretty well in this regard?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Sounds like a great D20 Modern/Future or Spycraft idea.

 

[Del]

Sounds like Defense R&D are on that like white on rice.

I tinker with weaponry research a little myself. Ask me about my Runaway-motion-picture-inspired recoilless rifle ..

 

[Umbran]

"Can be set alight" is in no way equivalent to "can detonate". Not everything that'll burn will explode.

So, maybe, maybe not. Whether you could do it or not, there's a far bigger question of whether it's cost effective.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I tinker with weaponry research a little myself. Ask me about my Runaway-motion-picture-inspired recoilless rifle ..

So, tell me about your Runaway-motion-picture-inspired recoilless rifle

 

[Del]

So, tell me about your Runaway-motion-picture-inspired recoilless rifle

One of the huge problems with space travel is no guns! We here at E-Sprawl R&D have an idea for a recoilless rifle for use in zero-g. The working rounds are fired from the rifle via a small air tank similar to a paintball gun. Each bullet is a working miniature missle that fires at 20-30 feet from the user. Absolutely useless in a gravitated enviroment but peachy in orbit!

I don't actually know if this will work but I suspect in trading the initial push against the user from gunpowder to an air, it might. Also not good for point-blank shots.

 

[Dirigible]

"Can be set alight" is in no way equivalent to "can detonate". Not everything that'll burn will explode.

Isn't 'explosion' just 'combustion turned up to 11' (ie, really fast)?

 

[buzzard]

Isn't 'explosion' just 'combustion turned up to 11' (ie, really fast)?

Yes, but if something doesn't combust particularly fast, it won't actually explode (unless put inside a vessel which can contain pressure and then burst).

The article didn't mention anything about rate of combustion. Though as a rule, I rather doubt it could be that fast. Real explosives generally have all you need for the chemical reaction in question all in the material. Carbon nanotubes will still require oxygen to be transported to the particles to sustain combustion. Now granted, if you disperse them enough I imagine they will boom pretty well (explosions in powdered metal plants are quite common and dangerous). However, I don't expect that you will be able to match the rate of reaction using a dispersed solid compared to the vapor you get from a FAE. Then again I'm not an explosives expert so I could be wrong. I just recall from Transport that generally solid phase materials don't actually react most of the time. They have to sublimate (or melt/dissolve) before the reaction actually takes place.

buzzard

 

[Umbran]

Absolutely useless in a gravitated enviroment but peachy in orbit!

I don't actually know if this will work but I suspect in trading the initial push against the user from gunpowder to an air, it might. Also not good for point-blank shots.

Not absolutely useless in a gravity environment. And not new, really. Go do a web-search on "gyrojet", and take a look...

 

[Umbran]

Isn't 'explosion' just 'combustion turned up to 11' (ie, really fast)?

Yes and no. There are actually two different processes called "explosion".

"Deflagration" is just combustion turned up to 11. Energy is transmitted from the ignition point through the material via heat conduction, and the burning spreads through the material slower than the speed of sound in the material.

"Detonation" (the process found in what we normally call "high explosives") isn't just fast burning. Energy is transmitted from the ignition point through the rest of the material via a shock wave - so the burning spreads not so much by it being hot, so much as it is by being compressed - with the result that the burning spreads faster than the speed of sound in the material.

Black powder does not, and cannot, detonate, for example.