Energetic Materials
Abstract
The goals of this technical focus area are to develop new energetic materials (EM) and supporting technologies to satisfy the competing requirements for smaller, more lethal, and safer munitions. Work is primarily focused on explosives, gun and rocket propellants, and, to a lesser extent, pyrotechnics. The projects include development of: new EM, including new molecules in a range of particle size and morphologies; new EM formulations; a fundamental understanding of energetic properties and performance; and computational tools for analysis of performance and sensitivity. New materials and formulations are developed with the recognition that cost must be feasible, chemical feed stocks reliable, and manufacturing processes suitable for scale-up to production levels. Both federal statute and Department policy direct the development of safer, less sensitive munitions. Making munitions less sensitive while maintaining explosive or propellant performance is a difficult challenge. This goal is best attained through a combination of new EM development, EM characterization, and more sophisticated modeling and simulation tools. It is cost-prohibitive to qualify weapons for compliance with insensitive munitions requirements through testing alone. A better, in many cases the only means to qualify these weapons is with the combination of analysis based on validated computational tools and a few well-designed tests. The Department requires munitions that provide selectable effects. To achieve these effects, weapons designers need to thoroughly understand the performance of EM used in both the main weapon fill and the initiation systems. Distributed fuzing systems can provide selectable effects as well as safer munitions, but such complex small-scale systems require more complete knowledge of EM detonation physics and in, some cases, new EM designed for this application. The desire for smaller and lighter munitions is driven in large part by the increasing dependence on unmanned weapons platforms and to some extent by the need to reduce logistical burden, especially energy consumption. New EM are needed to meet the munitions weight and size requirements while maintaining lethality and safety. The Department is working to increase the range and velocity of weapons and to develop weapons against hardened targets. These applications subject the EM to high accelerations and shock loads. To support the development of these new systems, we need to improve our ability to model EM under impact loads and to characterize relevant properties to determine their ability to survive in these aggressive environments. We may also need to develop new, more robust EM that survive impact loads while maintaining lethality and initiability. The specific projects in the energetic materials technical focus area are: – Synthesis, properties, and scale-up of new energetic compounds – Insensitive munitions and surety – New energetic materials formulation and characterization – CHEETAH thermochemical code development and experiments – Multi-functional energetic materials – Micro- and nano-energetics synthesis and initiation – Hazards analysis of energetic materials – Reaction processes of energetic materials – Microfluidic reactor synthesis of sensitive explosives – Energetics chemistry and properties – Microstructural and kinetic effects on energetic materials behavior – Microwave sensitization and initiation of energetic materials
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2012
- Source ID
- dac0f1302a6a3878c4cd567ace5ea25d