Fast Reactions In Energetic Materials PDF Download

In the brief instant of a high-explosive detonation, the shock wave produces a pressure 500,000 times that of the Earth's atmosphere, the detonation wave travels as fast as 10 kilometers per second, and internal temperatures soar up to 5,500 Kelvin. As the shock propagates through the energetic material, the rapid heating coupled with compression that results in almost 30% volume reduction, initiate complex chemical reactions. A dense, highly reactive supercritical fluid is established behind the propagating detonation front. Energy release from the exothermic chemical reactions serve in turn to drive and sustain the detonation process until complete reactivity is reached. Several experimental results suggest the existence of strong correlations between the applied mechanical stress and shocks, the local heterogeneity and defects (dislocations, vacancies, cracks, impurities, etc.), and the onset of chemical reactions. The reaction chemistry of energetic materials at high pressure and temperature is, therefore, of considerable importance in understanding processes that these materials experience under impact and detonation conditions. Chemical decomposition models are critical ingredients in order to predict, among other things, the measured times to explosion and the conditions for ignition of hot spots, localized regions of highly concentrated energy associated with defects. To date, chemical kinetic rates of condense-phase energetic materials at detonation conditions are virtually non-existent, and basic questions such as: (a) which bond in a given energetic molecule breaks first, and (b) what type of chemical reactions (unimolecular versus bimolecular, etc.) that dominate early in the decomposition process, are still largely unknown.