Computation of Structural Energetic Materials Under Shock Loading: a Meso-Scale Framework

Structural energetic materials or multifunctional energetic materials offer the ability to combine the high energy release rates of traditionalhigh explosives with structural strength. When successfully formulated therefore they can lead to light-weight, high-performance and hithertoinaccessible designs of munitions. The key feature of structural energetic materials (SEMs), perhaps even more so than conventional nitraminebindertype PBX formulations, is that the meso-scale dynamic interactions of SEMs under shock loading is crucial in determining their behavior.This Phase I proposal will employ a high-performance Eulerian sharp interface solver for high speed multimaterial interactions (SCIMITAR3D)to construct a framework for study of the meso-scale mechanics of SEMs. . In Phase I, the computational tool to be delivered in the proposedproject will be employed to perform simulations of the macro-scale and meso-scale reactive dynamics of typical SEM mixtures (metal-metalsystems) under a range of loading conditions and for varying mixture formulations. In addition, further aspects of modeling meso-scale energylocalization mechanisms, such as particle-particle contact, friction will be addressed in Phase I; damage evolution, state-of-the-art reactivekinetics models in a portable, scalable large scale simulation code will be put in place to be further developed in Phase II.