High-Density High-Entropy Reactive Materials

MATSYS proposes to develop high density and high strength reactive materials (RMs) with a high energy density to enhance warhead performance, especially during penetration and post-penetration of air-delivered munitions. The specific intent is to fabricate structural surrogates for conventional steel components of the munition body to significantly enhance their lethality. The proposed structural reactive material (SRM), consisting of several elements or compounds and capable of participating in an energetic (exothermic) chemical reaction, will radically alter weapons effectiveness, providing an asymmetric advantage in defeating a variety of targets in highly contested spaces. Our approach will combine our expertise in multi-component alloy design and high energy milling/mechanical alloying (MA) of powder blends with our unique expertise in instrumented-Hot Isostatic Pressing (i-HIP) to develop a next generation of tunable high density SRMs. The proposed material system will use a blend of several elemental powders, typically consisting of equiatomic concentrations, to prepare a high entropy alloy (HEA) with high strength, high density and high energy density. MA will be used to prepare the HEA. The existence of different powder materials will allow for tailoring of the mechanical and reactive properties of the material to meet the requirements for material density, strength and energy density.