Investigation of the Role of Temperature in Shock-Induced Initiations of Explosives Using an Ultrafast Indirect Laser Heating Technique

Author(s):

Nhan C. Dang, Jennifer L. Gottfried, and Frank C. De Lucia Jr

Abstract:

The initiation of an explosive under shock loadings occurs in an extreme environment of high dynamic pressure and temperature (temperature jump, T-jump) on a rapid (picosecond) time scale. Within such a complex environment and brief transition time, the dynamic response of materials can be very difficult to observe and understand. Moreover, if the roles of pressure and temperature were better understood, our predictive capabilities for the dynamic response of materials would be dramatically improved, enabling the design of new molecules with the desired functionality. Therefore, determining the roles or functions of pressure and temperature is needed in the science of predictive capabilities for explosives. We are developing experimental techniques to determine the roles of T-jump and its behaviors in explosives under ultrafast heating. The heating is generated by inducing a T-jump in a transition metal film, a process that produces T-jump analogous to one that occurs in a shock-induced initiation. In this report, we present an overview of these techniques.