2018 Insensitive Munitions & Energetic Materials Technology Symposium
Portland, OR
Slow Heating Testing Survey and Historical Events Review
Ernest L. Baker
Munitions Safety Information Analysis Center (NATO), Brussels, Belgium
This report describes the results of an international review of the STANAG 4382 Slow
Heating, Munitions Test Procedures, as well a review of heating rates and durations
associated with actual fire events. The purpose of the slow heating test is to assess the
reaction, if any, of munitions and weapon systems to a gradually increasing thermal
environment. To perform the review, MSIAC created a questionnaire in conjunction with
the custodian of this STANAG, the United States, and sent it to subject matter experts
including test centers in most of the AC/326 nations. The questionnaire questions deal
with the test purpose, test procedure, heating rate, actual events, oven design, oven
standardization, temperature preconditioning, energetics melting, reaction temperature,
test item restraints, test item orientation, instrumentation, and number of tests. This
report provides an analysis of the answers received, summarizes best practice and
provides some recommendations to potentially support an amendment of STANAG
4382. These recommendations are being discussed within the NATO AC/326 SG/B
Slow Heating Custodial Working Group (SH CWG). The working group has already
reviewed the review results and is currently drafting updates to STANAG 4382 NATO
documentation, which includes the technical content of the STANAG that is being
migrated into a new AOP 4382.
INTRODUCTION
This report describes the results of an international review of the STANAG 4382 Slow Heating,
Munitions Test Procedures, as well a review of heating rates and durations associated with
actual fire events. The purpose of the slow heating test is to assess the reaction, if any, of
munitions and weapon systems to a gradually increasing thermal environment. To perform the
review, MSIAC created a questionnaire in conjunction with the custodian of this STANAG, the
United States, and sent it to subject matter experts including test centers in most of the AC/326
nations. Moreover, an analysis of similar standards has been done in order to achieve more
consistency in the recommendations. From a NATO point of view, the requirements for the slow
heating test are defined within three documents: STANAG 4439, STANAG 4382 and AOP-39.
The test 7 (h) from the “UN – Manual of Tests and Criteria” specifies a slow cook-off test for the
classification into hazard division 1.6. The questionnaire questions deal with the test purpose,
test procedure, heating rate, actual events, oven design, oven standardization, temperature
preconditioning, energetics melting, reaction temperature, test item restraints, test item
orientation, instrumentation, and number of tests. This report provides an analysis of the
answers received, summarizes best practice and provides some recommendations to potentially
support an amendment of STANAG 4382.
BACKGROUND
In 2015, MSIAC carried out a review of STANAG 4496 related to the fragment impact test This
review was managed the same way as this current one, and resulted in a list of
recommendations that are currently being discussed in a custodian working group to update
STANAG 4496. Following the review of the bullet and fragment impact tests, MSIAC proposed
