Shock initiation of explosives: Temperature spikes and growth spurts Available to Purchase

When energetic materials are subjected to high-velocity impacts, the first steps in the shock-to-detonation transition are the creation, ignition, and growth of hot spots. We used 1–3.2 km s⁻¹ laser-launched flyer plates to impact powdered octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine, a powerful explosive, and monitored hundreds of emission bursts with an apparatus that determined temperature and emissivity at all times. The time-dependent volume fraction of hot spots was determined by measuring the time-dependent emissivity. After the shock, most hot spots extinguished, but the survivors smoldered for hundreds of nanoseconds until their temperatures spiked, causing a hot spot growth spurt. Depending on the impact duration, the growth spurts could be as fast as 300 ns and as slow as 13 μs.