Microstructured Microstructure: Effects of Concentration Variations on Shock Initiation of HMX-based Plastic Explosives

Dana D. Dlott, Lawrence Salvati, Siva Kumar Valluri

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

We studied shock-compressed plastic-bonded explosives (PBX) consisting of HMX (cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine) with PDMS (poly-dimethylsiloxane) binder, where we varied the HMX weight percent (wt%) up to a maximum of 60 wt%. In this lower-concentration regime, HMX particle clustering causes the PBX structure to consist of HMX clusters and PDMS islands. Structural analysis by optical microscopy allowed us to compute a radial correlation function that gives the mean distance from an average HMX particle to the nearest polymer island. Short-duration 20 GPa shocks (4 ns) created hot spots, and time-resolved thermal emission was used to obtain the growth rate of the subsequent deflagration. The unreactive polymer islands limited the deflagration growth rate below 40 wt%.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number490005
JournalAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume3066
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 9 2024
Event23rd Biennial Conference of the APS Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, SCCM 2023 - Hybrid, Chicago, United States
Duration: Jun 19 2023Jun 23 2023

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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