Dynamic behavior of crystal energetic material (sugar) under uniaxial plate impact configuration

Uniaxial plate impact experiments were performed to assess the dynamic response of heterogeneous mixtures of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and sugar. The individual constituents were impacted in wave reverberation experiments to obtain the response of each independently before mixtures were constructed.  Geometric complexity was introduced by initially including a single sugar grain embedded within PDMS, then a small array of grains, eventually sugar was added to mass mixtures of nearly 80/20 PDMS/sugar.  Photon Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) was applied to monitor the particle velocities of the targets.  Simulations were performed with two hydrocodes: a three-dimensional Eulerian code (CTH) and a one-dimensional Lagrangian code (KO).  The simulations were used to better interpret the experimental results, as well as to assess the necessary mesoscale mechanisms to reproduce experimentally obtained shock profile signatures. The initial geometries for the simulations were obtained from 3D x-ray computed tomography obtained from the test articles and the PDV locations were selected in order to make a direct comparison with the simulations.