EVALUATION OF X-RAY MICROTOMOGRAPHY FOR ENERGETIC MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED CHEMICAL SYSTEMS WOULD BENEFIT GREATLY FROM THE AVAILABILITY OF NEW INSPECTION TECHNIQUES WHICH COULD IMAGE MATERIALS WITH SUBMIRCON RESOLUTION. BENEFITS OF SUCH A CAPABILITY WOULD INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO NONDESTRUCTIVELY EXAMINE SAMPLES IN THREE DIMENSIONS TO HIGH RESOLUTION; OBTAIN SPATIALLY RESOLVED CHEMICAL ELEMENT MAPS; EXAMINE FILLER PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS; MAKE PARTICLE SIZE AND HOMOGENEITY MAPS AND/OR HISTOGRAMS; DETERMINE PARTICLE COMPOSITION; EXAMINE AVOID SIZES AND MAKE VOID MAPS. A PHASE I PROGRAM TO EXTEND MICROTOMOGRAPHY TO SAMPLE SIZES AND SCAN TIMES OF PRACTICAL VALUE FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF ENERGETIC MATERIALS IS PROPOSED. SPECIFICALLY, PHASE I WILL IMPLEMENT PROOFOF-PRINCIPLE EXPERIMENTS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT LAYERED SYNTHETIC MICROSTRUCTURE (LSM) MONOCHROMETERS CAN BE USED TO ENHANCE, BY AT LEAST AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE OVER PRESENT MONOCHROMETER DESIGNS, THE RADIATIVE FLUX NECESSARY FOR MICROTOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING. IF DESIRED, THIS INCREASE FLUX CAN BE TRADED FOR INCREASED RADIATION ENERGY, MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR THE FIRST TIME TO PERFORM SUBMICRON CT SCANS AT ENERGIES IN THE 30-69 KEV RANGE. A SURVEY OF THE RESEARCH NEEDS OF ENERGETIC MATERIALS COMMUNITY WILL BE MADE TO DETERMINE THE PRECISE RANGE OF SIZES, MATERIALS, SCAN TIMES, AND TEST SCENARIOS THAT WOULD BE MOST BENEFICAL. DESIGN CONCEPTS WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR BOTH A SCANNER SYSTEM USING A LABORATORY X-RAY SOURCE AND ONE USING A SYNCHROTRON SOURCE. A TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGE USING AN LSM MONOCHROMETER WILL BE OBTAINED AT AN EXISTING SYNCHROTRON LABORATORY.