Mechanical Characterization of Energetic Materials

In this program, DSR proposes to develop test equipment that can be used by the Air Force to begin investigating inert and live explosive material properties under different pressure and temperature environments. Strain-rate levels will be adjustable with this equipment and will vary between 10-5-10-2 s-1 dependent upon the stiffness and strength of the test material. When completed, 25.4-mm-diameter specimens with length-to-diameter ratios of at least 2 can be tested at high confining pressures and under a wide range of temperature extremes in this device. In Phase I, mechanical, hydraulic, and temperature application designs will be developed for the test device with the capability to apply confining pressures up to 200 MPa to the right-circular cylinder samples over a wide range of temperatures. DSR plans to design a highly-accurate instrumentation configuration that will allow for accurate measurements as well as provide the necessary servo-loop feedback to obtain high-fidelity behavior of the test specimen. In Phase II, the mechanical, hydraulic, and instrumentation designs conceptually developed in the Phase I effort will be used to build the device and validate its capabilities (using an inert simulant material) under a variety of different conditions.