CSAR Seminar

SPEAKER: Henry Tan, UIUC/MIE

TITLE: Stability of Interface Debonding in Particulate Composite Materials

DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 2006
TIME: 12:00 Noon
PLACE: 2240 DCL
1304 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana, IL

ABSTRACT

Both solid propellants and high explosives can be treated as particulate composite materials with high specific surface of interfaces. Numeric simulations show that particles can debond non-uniformly from the matrix, and the non-uniform debonding occurs suddenly. We call this phenomenon unstable interface debonding. Stability of interface debonding in energetic composite materials is an important issue that can affect the safety and sensitivity of the system. Through micromechanics modeling, we establish a stability criterion for interface debonding in particulate composite materials. The stability theory is then applied to two experimental observations, one relates to the particle size effect on the explosiveness of high explosives, the other relates to the experimentally observed chaotic deformation during the phase transformation of energetic particles in the high explosive PBX 9501.