Mesoscale simulations of shock initiation in energetic materials characterized by three-dimensional nanotomography

Three-dimensional shock simulations of energetic materials have been conducted to improve our understanding of initiation at the mesoscale. Vapor-deposited films of PETN and pressed powders of HNS were characterized with a novel three-dimensional nanotomographic technique. Detailed microstructures were constructed experimentally from a stack of serial electron micrographs obtained by successive milling and imaging in a dual-beam FIB/SEM. These microstructures were digitized and imported into a multidimensional, multimaterial Eulerian shock physics code. The simulations provided insight into the mechanisms of pore collapse in PETN and HNS samples with distinctly different three-dimensional pore morphology and distribution. This modeling effort supports investigations of microscale explosive phenomenology and elucidates mechanisms governing initiation of secondary explosives. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.