A Software Tool for Transforming XCMT Images into Computational Mesostructures

The objective of the proposed work is to deliver a software tool that can take information from a general imaging modality and convert the information to a form that is compatible with standard computational platforms for performing research and analysis of mesoscale dynamics. A key aspect of modeling energy deposition from activated high explosives (HEs) is that the fundamental mechanisms of energy release manifest at the mesoscale corresponding to particle sizes (tens of microns in size). Tools to conduct increasingly sophisticated and realistic computational modeling of the mesoscale dynamics of HEs under the effects of imposed loads are under development by numerous researchers including the proposing team. To facilitate this, one must first have the ability to capture the geometry of the meso-structure of real samples of HEs and to transmute the images into a form that can be input to advanced computational codes (hydro-codes) that can then conduct numerical experiments on these samples. This proposal lays out a plan for developing a comprehensive software tool for receiving images from x-ray computed micro-tomography (XCMT) – and other sources – and reconstructing a 3D sample from such data. The output will be 3D models that can be used in a variety of hydrocodes.