Tailoring explosive functionality requires understanding the detonation physics driving overall material specifications. This additionally includes the ability to control both chemical and structural properties of such materials. Understanding the fluid effects of basic mesostructural features on detonation propagation allows for intelligently combining them to affect wave shaping, corner turning, failure behavior, and so on.
Dr. Terry Salyer,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Additive manufacturing enables the formation of prescribed internal mesostructure, while simultaneous integration of electrically conductive explosive formulations enables increased explosive functionality, whether static or dynamic. The internal electronic components enabled by our novel conductive explosives are fully energetic, invisible to the bulk charge, and contribute equally to the detonation performance of the consolidated system. As a result, detonable/reactive electronic additively manufactured systems (DREAMS) and related concepts will provide embedded explosive sensing and other functionality without compromising detonation performance, with the added benefit of enhanced or intentionally degraded performance if desired.
Dr. Terry Salyer is the Detonation Concepts Team Leader within the Shock and Detonation Physics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His team focuses on the fundamental dynamics of the detonation process and the application to novel detonation concepts. Terry received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University with a focus on high-speed fluid dynamics, shock physics, and optical diagnostics development. After briefly working in the aerospace industry, Terry joined LANL in 2003 and has actively engaged in explosives research and development as applied to DOE and DOD weapon systems. Terry also continues to specialize in the development of novel diagnostics used to probe the fundamentals of shock, detonation, and combustion processes.