Design of energetic materials is an exciting area in mechanics and materials science. Energetic composite materials are used as propellants, explosives and fuel cell components. Energy release in these materials are accompanied by extreme events: shock waves travel at typical speeds of several thousand meters per second and the peak pressures can reach hundreds of gigapascals. In this paper, we...

An optical system has been redesigned and used to measure detonation velocity as a function of condensed explosive density for RDX, HMX, PETN. These measurements are then used to determine and fine tune parameters appearing in the BKW (Beker-Kistiakowsky-Wilson) equation of state for gases at extremely high pressures. Steady state form of conservation equations along with the BKW state equation...

We study the conversion of neutron matter into strange matter as a detonation wave. The detonation is assumed to originate from a central region in a spherically symmetric background of neutrons with a varying radial density distribution. We present self-similar solutions for the propagation of detonation in static and collapsing backgrounds of neutron matter. The solutions are obtained in the ...

Detonation-produced hydroxyapatite coatings were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. The source material for detonation spraying was a B-type carbonated hydroxyapatite powder. The coatings consisted of tetracalcium phosphate and apatite. The ratio depended slightly on the degre...

The development of a shock-induced detonation driver for enhancing the performance of a shock tube is described. The detonation wave is induced by the expansion of helium or air. Various gaseous fuel–oxidizer combinations are examined. This method produces a detonation wave which propagates downstream that transitions into a shock wave in the driven section. High-enthalpy flows with a maximum t...

Behavior of blast wave in underwater explosion is of interest to metal forming community and ship designers. Underwater detonation is, also a potential hazard to the water intakes or a plant spent fuel pool. In this paper, some techniques for calculating free-field blast parameters such as pressure and impulse in underwater explosion and prediction of bubble pulsation parameters are presented a...

We study the conversion of neutron matter into strange matter as a detonation wave. The detonation is assumed to originate from a central region in a spherically symmetric background of neutrons with a varying radial density distribution. We present self-similar solutions for the propagation of detonation in static and collapsing backgrounds of neutron matter. The solutions are obtained in the ...

A “purely gasdynamic” indirect detonation initiation process is presented that can be independent of diffusion, viscosity and turbulence, and does not require direct initiation. In this process, energy is deposited into a finite volume of fluid in an amount of time that is similar to the acoustic timescale of the fluid volume. Highly resolved two-dimensional simulations show that the artificial...

The explosion of an improvised nuclear device (IND), in any American city, would cause devastating physical and social impacts. These impacts would exceed the response capabilities of any city, state or region. The potential loss and suffering caused by an IND detonation can be dramatically reduced through informed planning and preparedness. By incorporating estimates of the impacts associated ...

We establish the existence of the viscous proole of an undriven divergent detonation wave for a model problem with small viscosity. It is known that there is a sonic point inside the reaction zone of a divergent detonation wave. As a consequence, the detonation wave proole is a transonic proole and the wave speed cannot be determined before the problem is solved. The wave speed may be interpret...