Publications Details

Shock wave structure in heterogeneous reactive media

Baer, M.R.

Continuum mixture theory and mesoscale modeling are applied to describe the behavior of shock-loaded heterogeneous media. One-dimensional simulations of gas-gun experiments demonstrate that the wave features are well described by mixture theory, including reflected wave behavior and conditions where significant reaction is initiated. Detailed wave fields are resolved in numerical simulations of impact on a lattice of discrete explosive {open_quotes}crystals{close_quotes}. It is shown that rapid distortion first occurs at material contact points; the nature of the dispersive fields includes large amplitude fluctuations of stress over several particle pathlengths. Localization of energy causes {open_quotes}hot-spots{close_quotes} due to shock focusing and plastic work as material flows into interstitial regions.