It can be shown that for the complete description of all the physical parameters in the flow behind an imtermediate strength unsteady shock, a knowledge of the particle trajectories within the flow is sufficient. This principle has been applied to determine the variation of the physical parameters throughout the length of a conventional shock tube. The particle trajectories were obtained by the high speed photography of cigarette smoke tracers, placed at 10 cm. intervals along the tube. By applying the conservation of mass equation to the particle trajectory data, the density variation was obtained throughout the flow including the rarefaction wave from the end of the compression chamber and behind the first reflected shock from the closed end of the expansion chamber. By means of the Rankine-Hugoniot relation, the pressures immediately behind the incident and reflected shock fronts were calculated, and by assuming isentropic flow between shocks along any particle trajectory, the complete pressure variation was determined. The temperature and local sound speed were subsequently calculated at all points and the particle velocities were determined from the time derivative of the particle trajectories. A complete mapping of all the parameters in the shock tube was thus obtained using a single photographic technique, which is simpler than previous methods. / Graduate / 0605

No description available.

No description available.

The shock compression of Reactive Particle Metal Mixtures (RPMMs) is studied at the microscale by direct numerical simulation. Mixture microstructures are rendered explicitly, providing spatial resolution of the coupled thermal, mechanical, and chemical responses at the particle level during shock compression. A polymer-bonded aluminum-iron oxide thermite system is the focus of this work; however, the computational methods developed here may be extended to other reactive particle systems. Shock waves are propagated through the mixtures in finite element simulations, where Eulerian formulations are used to handle the highly-dynamic nature of particulate shock compression. Thermo-mechano-chemical responses are computed for a set of mixture classes (20% and 50% epoxy content by weight) subjected to a range of dynamic loading conditions (particle velocities ranging from 0.300??00 km/s). Two critical sub-problems are addressed: (i) the calculation of Hugoniot data for variable mixture compositions and (ii) the prediction of sites that experience microscale reaction initiation. Hugoniot calculations are in excellent agreement with experimental data. Microscale reaction initiation sites are predicted in certain load cases for each mixture class, although such predictions cannot currently be validated by experimental methods.

Eight flush mount pressure sensors were used in a series of 3 test sequences to measure air overpressure produced by a firecracker. Overpressure was recorded at a range of 1 inch to 21 inches away from detonation, and charge weight was determined to be 0.1mg of black powder. Air overpressure prediction equations were developed from test series then compared to collected data for subsequent tests. Overpressure wave velocity was measured using wave arrival time and distance between sensors. This wave velocity was compared to calculated wave velocity using overpressure and ideal gas law. Overpressure and wave velocity are directly related to each other in shock wave behavior. The goal of these tests was to identify at what point the in elastic-plastic region the overpressure wave no longer closely resembled a shock wave, but an elastic wave instead.

The physical properties within the two-dimensional flow produced by the reflection of a plane shock of intermediate strength at a wedge, have been determined by analysis of the particle trajectories. The particle trajectories were obtained by high speed photography of smoke tracers within the flow. Trajectories were determined for different initial positions of the tracers relative to the wedge. The conservation of mass equation was used to determine the density at points within the flow. A knowledge of the shock configurations within the flow, together with the Rankins-Hugoniot equation, was used to determine the pressure immediately behind the incident and reflected shocks. The isentropic equation of state was used to determine the pressure after the passage of the reflected shock. The pressure determined in this manner agreed, within the limits of experimental error, with that obtained using a piezo-electric transducer. The temperature, velocity of sound, and particle velocity at points within the flow were also determined. / Graduate / 0605

abstract: The exceptional mechanical properties of polymers with heterogeneous structure, such as the high toughness of polyethylene and the excellent blast-protection capability of polyurea, are strongly related to their morphology and nanoscale structure. Different polymer microstructures, such as semicrystalline morphology and segregated nanophases, lead to coordinated molecular motions during deformation in order to preserve compatibility between the different material phases. To study molecular relaxation in polyethylene, a coarse-grained model of polyethylene was calibrated to match the local structural variable distributions sampled from supercooled atomistic melts. The coarse-grained model accurately reproduces structural properties, e.g., the local structure of both the amorphous and crystalline phases, and thermal properties, e.g., glass transition and melt temperatures, and dynamic properties: including the vastly different relaxation time scales of the amorphous and crystalline phases. A hybrid Monte Carlo routine was developed to generate realistic semicrystalline configurations of polyethylene. The generated systems accurately predict the activation energy of the alpha relaxation process within the crystalline phase. Furthermore, the models show that connectivity to long chain segments in the amorphous phase increases the energy barrier for chain slip within crystalline phase. This prediction can guide the development of tougher semicrystalline polymers by providing a fundamental understanding of how nanoscale morphology contributes to chain mobility. In a different study, the macroscopic shock response of polyurea, a phase segregated copolymer, was analyzed using density functional theory (DFT) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and classical MD simulations. The two models predict the shock response consistently up to shock pressures of 15 GPa, beyond which the DFT-based simulations predict a softer response. From the DFT simulations, an analysis of bond scission was performed as a first step in developing a more fundamental understanding of how shock induced material transformations effect the shock response and pressure dependent strength of polyurea subjected to extreme shocks. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mechanical Engineering 2017

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A laser-driven flyer impact system was constructed, characterized, and validated for performing uniaxial-strain experiments to investigate the shock equation-of-state (EOS) and processes leading to reaction initiation in thin, fully-dense Ni-Al nanolayered foils. Additionally, various fully-dense Ni-Al mixtures with highly heterogeneous microstructures and widely varying length scales were investigated to understand influence of meso-scale features on the shock compression and reaction response. Ni-Al composites are a class of reactive materials also called Structural Energetic Materials (SEMs), which aim to combine stiffness and strength with the ability to release large amounts of energy through highly exothermic reactions when the constituents are intimately mixed during shock loading. While porous reactive materials have been studied extensively, the processes leading to reaction initiation in fully-dense mixtures consisting of phases with disparate mechanical properties is more ambiguous. A table-top, small-scale laser system was developed for studying shock-induced effects in extremely thin reactive materials. Laser accelerated thin foil impact experiments utilizing time-resolved interferometry allowed for measuring the Hugoniot of the nanolayered Ni-Al foil over a range of particle velocities/pressures. Separate recovery experiments were performed by shock-loading Ni-Al foils slightly below the reaction initiation threshold and performing post-mortem TEM/STEM analysis to identify the constituent mixing processes leading to reaction. Direct-shock experiments were performed on the different fully-dense Ni-Al mixtures and hydrodynamic simulations using real microstructures allowed direct correlations with the experiment results, which yielded an improved understanding of the effect of phase arrangement on the shock propagation and reaction initiation response. The EOS experiments performed at particle velocities > 200 m/s showed a deviation from the predicted inert trend and recovered targets showed complete reaction to the B2-NiAl intermetallic phase. The measured deviation from inert behavior and state of recovered material suggests the occurrence of a shock-induced chemical reaction. The shocked (but unreacted) Ni-Al materials contained distinct constituent mixing features (layer jets and intermixed zones), where significant elemental penetration occurred and are likely sources of reaction initiation. The observed results provide the first clear evidence of shock-induced reactions in fully-dense nanolayered Ni-Al foils.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:28:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3559.pdf: 499785 bytes, checksum: 08c3a73aa07cbea987903f5c2a785444 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-23 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / We study scalar conservation laws, with the deduction of an explicit formula of a smooth solution with compact support, we also present the behavior of the solution given by the formula when the initial value is zero outside a finite interval. In order to study the uniqueness of a given conservation law under certain hypotheses. / Neste trabalho estudamos leis de conservação escalar, com a dedução de uma fórmula explícita de uma solução suave de suporte compacto, também apresentamos o comportamento da solução dada pela fórmula quando o dado inicial é nulo fora de algum intervalo limitado e por fim estudamos a unicidade para uma dada lei de conservação sob certas hipóteses.