Effects of high shock pressures and pore morphology on hot spot mechanisms in HMX

The shock initiation and detonation behavior of heterogeneous solid explosives is governed by its microstructure and reactive properties. New additive manufacturing techniques off er unprecedented control of explosive microstructures previously impossible, enabling us to develop novel explosives with tailored shock sensitivity and detonation properties. Since microstructure-performance-relationships are not well established for explosives, there is little material design guidance for these manufacturing techniques. In this study, we explore the effects of high shock pressures (15-38 GPa) with long shock durations and different pore morphologies on hot spot mechanisms in HMX. HMX is chosen as the model material because we have experimental data on many of the chemical-thermal-mechanical properties required for pore collapse simulations. Our simulations are performed using the multi-physics arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian finite element hydrocode, ALE3D, with Cheetah-based models for the un-reacted and the product equation-of-states. We use a temperature-dependent specific heat with the unreacted equation-of-state and a temperature-dependent viscosity model to ensure accurate shock temperatures for subsequent chemistry. The Lindemann Law model is used for shock melting in HMX. In contrast to previous pore collapse studies at lower shock pressures (<= 10 GPa) in HMX and shorter post-collapse burning times, our calculations show that shock melting occurs above 15 GPa due to higher bulk heating and a prominent elongated (jet-like) hot spot region forms at later times. The combination of the elongated, post-collapse hot spot region and the higher bulk heating with increasing pressure dramatically increases the growth rate of reaction. Our calculations show that the reaction rate, dF/dt, increases with increasing shock pressure. We decompose the reaction rate into ignition ((dF/dt)(ig)) and growth ((dF/dt)(gr)) phases to better analyze our results. We define the ignition phase to primarily include pore collapse and growth phase to primarily include post-collapse grain burning. We are able to track late-time, post-collapse burning due to the unique loading conditions employed in these calculations. We find that (dF/dt)(gr) > (dF/dt)(ig) for all pressures considered. (dF/dt)(gr) changes more significantly from 25 to 38 GPa (from 0.05/mu s to > 10-100/mu s) than from 15 to 25 GPa (from 0.005/mu s to 0.05 /mu s). There is a three order-of-magnitude difference in the reaction from 15 to 38 GPa just after pore collapse. This is qualitatively consistent with fitting the (macroscopic) Ignition and Growth model to high pressure shock initiation data, where much larger reaction fractions are needed to capture the early stages of reaction. Calculated burn rates demonstrate better agreement with data at intermediate times in the growth phase for 15 to 25 GPa and late times for 30 GPa then at any time in the growth phase for 38 GPa. Our calculations are much higher than burn rate data at the earliest times in the growth phase for all pressures, which may reflect the higher localized pressures and temperatures just after pore collapse in the ignition phase. Our calculations with spherical, conical, and elliptical pores show that the influence of morphology on reaction rate is pressure dependent and the most influential pore shapes at lower pressures aren't the same at higher pressures in the regime studied. Altogether these studies provide the basis for developing microstructure-aware models that can be used to design new explosives with optimal performance-safety characteristics. Such models can be used to guide additive manufacturing of explosives and fully exploit their disruptive nature.