High dynamic range emission measurements of shocked energetic materials: Octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX)

A new emission apparatus with high time resolution and high dynamic range was used to study shock-induced ignition of octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine in the form of ultrafine powder (4 ± 3 μm particle size), over a range of impact velocities (0.8–4.3 km s⁻¹) and impact durations (2.5–16 ns). A graybody model was used to extract graybody emissivities and time-dependent temperatures from a few ns to 100 μs. The emission transients consisted of three parts: a 6700 K nanosecond burst during the shocks, a 4000–4500 K temperature spike near 0.3 μs followed by a ∼3300 K tail extending out to ∼100 μs. These temperatures varied remarkably little with impact velocity and duration, while the emission intensities and emissivities changed by over an order of magnitude. The emissivity changes were interpreted with a hot spot model, where hot spot temperatures reached a maximum of 6700 K and the hot spot volume fractions increased from 5% to 100% as impact velocity increased from 1 to 3 km s⁻¹. Changing shock durations in the 2.5–16 ns range had noticeable effects on the microsecond emission. The 0.3 μs temperature spike was much smaller or absent with 2.5 ns shocks, but prominent with longer durations. An explanation for these effects was put forth that invoked the formation of carbon-rich clusters during the shock. In this view, cluster formation was minimal with 2.5 ns shocks, but longer-duration shocks produced increasingly larger clusters, and the 0.3 μs temperature spikes represented cluster ignition.