Mesoscale studies of mixing in reactive materials during shock loading

Abstract

One of the requisite processes for chemical reactions between solid powder particles resulting from shock loading is that the particles undergo large deformations, exposing new surfaces while mixing with surrounding material. Reactions under shock loading occur in a reaction zone, the extent of which is defined by the interfacial surface area and the depth of the diffusion layer. The former depends on the level of hydrodynamic mixing of heterogeneous material under shock, while the latter depends on temperaturedependent species diffusion. To investigate diffusion-limited reactions at the grain scale level, mass diffusion and simple reaction kinetics depending on the interfacial surface area have been implemented in an Eulerian hydrocode GEODYN. Diffusion-reaction processes that are initiated by rapid heating of a Ni/Al nanolaminate and by shock loading of a micron-scale Ni/Al powder mixture are considered. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.