Proton radiography of a thermal explosion in PBX9501

L. Smilowitz, B. F. Henson, J. J. Romero, M. M. Sandstrom, B. W. Asay, C. Schwartz, A. Saunders, F. Merrill, C. Morris, M. M. Murray, W. V. McNeil, M. Marr-Lyon, P. M. Rightley

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

The understanding of thermal explosions and burn propagation lags that of detonations and shock propagation. Diagnostics such as high energy radiography have been used to image shocks, but have been previously precluded from use in thermal explosions due to their stringent timing requirements: shock propagation can be synchronized to an external diagnostic while thermal explosion can not. This issue is solved by following the evolution of the ignition volume in a thermal explosion and using a laser pulse to provide a temperature jump in that central volume during the final thermal runaway leading to ignition. Thermal explosion experiments have been conducted at the Los Alamos Proton Radiography facility and have yielded images of the evolution of ignition, post-ignition burn propagation, and case failure in a radially confined cylinder of PBX 9501. This paper presents images taken during the hours long quasistatic heating, the final minutes of thermal runaway, and the post ignition burn propagation.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationShock Compression of Condensed Matter - 2007
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the Conference of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, 2007 APS SCCM
Pages1139-1142
Number of pages4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Externally publishedYes
Event15th Biennial International Conference of the APS Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, SCCM 2007 - Waikoloa, HI, United States
Duration: Jun 24 2007Jun 29 2007

Publication series

NameAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume955
ISSN (Print)0094-243X
ISSN (Electronic)1551-7616

Conference

Conference15th Biennial International Conference of the APS Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, SCCM 2007
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityWaikoloa, HI
Period06/24/0706/29/07

Keywords

  • Laser ignition
  • PBX9501
  • Thermal explosion

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