SHEAR DEFORMATION AND SHEAR INITIATION OF EXPLOSIVES AND PROPELLANTS

Sensitivity rankings of energetic materials are not generally consistent across a range of stimuli–shock, shear, and thermal. Ultimately, one desires an initiation criterion and fundamental understanding of each. For thermal and shock stimuli, several useful models and experiments exist. However, many hazard scenarios lead to “shear” initiation in which the energetic material experiences a complex and poorly understood flow field. Energy is deposited in local regions in the material over short timescales. Thus, temperatures quickly rise to high values leading to a precarious competition between the energy input between deviatoric strain energy and chemical energy and energy loss due to heat conduction.