Sensitivity effects of void density and arrangements in a REBO high explosive

Journal Article · Tue Sep 28 04:00:00 EDT 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20101000024· OSTI ID:1035176

Herring, Stuart Davis ^[1]; Germann, Timothy C ^[1]; Gronbech - Jensen, Niels ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory

The shock response of two-dimensional model, high explosive crystals with various arrangements of circular voids is explored. We simulate a piston impact using molecular dynamics simulations with a Reactive Empirical Bond Order (REBO) model potential for a sub-micron, sub-ns exothermic reaction in a diatomic molecular solid. In square lattices of voids all of one size, reducing that size or increasing the porosity while holding the other parameter fixed causes the hotspots to consume the material more quickly and detonation to occur sooner and at lower piston velocities. The early time behavior is seen to follow a very simple ignition and growth model. The hotspots are seen to collectively develop a broad pressure wave (a sonic, diffuse deflagration front) that, upon merging with the lead shock, transforms it into a detonation. The reaction yields produced by triangular lattices are not significantly different. With random void arrangements, the mean time to detonation is 15.5% larger than with the square lattice; the standard deviation of detonation delays is just 5.1%.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1035176
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-10-06574; LA-UR-10-6574
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIVES
EXPLOSIONS
IGNITION
PISTONS
POROSITY
SENSITIVITY