Theoretical lampare/salute

[TheEskimo]

Hiya folks:

I was lazing around a couple weeks ago, and looking around on Wikipedia(sometimes not all too reliable, but it's fun), and I was looking at grenades. They were talking about flashbang grenades. They said that a new type was being produced/design; to wit the new grenade use BP to flush out Dark Al. This then ignites in a FAE. It is better because it lessens the damage to hostages/targets close to the grenade, but creates a louder bang, and brighter flash, from farther away.

I already posted this on the PyroGuideForum, but I wanted to try here because there are people here with a lot more experience. Could you take a shell, and add a burst charge of BP, then surround with Dark Al(maybe even some bright flake Al), with some primed fuses mixed in? The BP would disperse the Al, and in case the BP did not ignite the Al, the fuses would take care of the job?

This would be safer than a regular salute/ lampare, in my opinion, because you would not be lugging around large amounts of flash, or flash surrounding a liquid fuel.

Thanks all.

[scarbelly]

Sounds sort of like a spherical cremora pot. That would get kind of expensive though wouldn't it? With all of that fine aluminum powder...

[flying fish]

Aluminum also burns at a very high temperature; you would get a bright white fireball, not the orange kind you get from liquid fuels (gasoline), Charcoal, or cremora. Also, mumbles was explaining to me ealier that liquid fuels tend to produce bigger fireballs, which is why they are used in aerial lampares (to create a more visible effect).

 

The method that you are pointing to may just work for producing the brightest flash, but I'm thinking it won't be a suitable substitute for traditional fuels when the goal is a good old fireball.

[scarbelly]

Of course it would burn differently than normal fireballs and such, but i was just thinking that it ran on the same basic principle as a cremora pot...

[Mumbles]

I know some people have made small cremoras with them. I don't know how well they'd light. You might want to go with a BP/Al mixture. Sort of a prime for the Al. It'd keep the temperature up. Bright flake Al is pretty cheap right now. It might be worth a shot. I don't think I'd waste my dark flake on anything but an additive here.

[Miech]

They are going to make flashbangs even louder? They already are at the point of just not breaking your eardrums.

 

A FAE is possible this way however, but it takes a very neat design to get it right. Just shooting it in the air or putting it in a cracker doesn't make it explode, at least not with BP.

 

If you want a higher chance of ignition, try fine magnalium. Anything passing 300 mesh should be fine. I've used that to get reports with rediculously much light, because I had some -625 mesh magnalium I didn't really like for other purposes. (you can actually set it on fire without any efford)

[TheEskimo]

Well, I'll be experimenting near the end of August.....the summer job is almost done, and then I can do some serious shopping for some stuff that I've been looking for the last week or two.

[RUUUUUN]

Thermobaric grenade!! yeah!!! I don't think thermobarics could be construed as pyrotechnics... to borderline HE and weaponized without the whole "art with fire" aspect. Unless you could get a blue or red thermobaric fireball; then you may be onto something pyrotechnically related.... I think the whole idea of making a fireball for people to enjoy is to get something that burns longer than a microsecond so that you have something that lingers a little bit. I mean Sure, uber-bright flashes and earth shattering kabooms are cool, but don't make for a very neat visual presentation...

[NightHawkInLight]

I know some people have made small cremoras with them. I don't know how well they'd light. You might want to go with a BP/Al mixture. Sort of a prime for the Al. It'd keep the temperature up. Bright flake Al is pretty cheap right now. It might be worth a shot. I don't think I'd waste my dark flake on anything but an additive here.

-200 mesh Mg makes for about the brightest flash I have ever seen. Just a tablespoon or two of BP, then a few spoons of Mg above it. I've been making a few recently. I have been told that if to much Mg is used above the BP it goes up with quite the bang. Not because of compression, but because of the flame front being accelerated violently from such extreme heat buildup.

 

That would make quite the flashbang. On the other hand, I would much rather be cut up a bit from a perch/Al concussion than Mg flash fried. I might even go for losing a body part before that. A small pile of nitrate/Mg can't be lit even with a coal on the end of a 12" stick without blistering your knuckles. A half pound of fine Mg powder burning suspended in open air would cook all exposed skin to char.

[psyco_1322]

You might have a read of this file/thread.

 

http://www.apcforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2766