A simple procedure is introduced by which detonation pressure of CaHbNcOd explosives can be predicted from a, b, c, d and calculated gas phase heat of formation of explosives at any loading density without using any assumed detonation products and experimental data. It is shown here that the loading density, simply calculated heat of formation by additivity rule and atomic composition can be integrated into an empirical formula for predicting the detonation pressure of proposed explosives. Calculated detonation pressures by the introduced method for both pure and explosive formulations show good agreement with respect to measured detonation pressure over a wide range of loading density. The deviations are within about experimental errors. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.