Micro-Sandwich Test of Vapor-Deposited Hexanitroazobenzene (HNAB)

Experiments were conducted to support development of equation of state (EOS) of detonation products for the high explosive, hexanitroazobenzene (HNAB) using a scaled-down version of a sandwich test. The sandwich test is the 2-dimensional analog of the well-known 1-dimensional cylinder test. Use of the sandwich test allows experiments to be conducted on films of explosive produced by physical vapor deposition (PVD). PVD allows for close contact between the explosive and the substrate and provides repeatable geometries and microstructures. The PVD process was conducted in a custom deposition chamber at Sandia National Laboratories. HNAB was deposited by vacuum thermal evaporation onto tantalum substrates that were rotated to ensure uniform thicknesses. Amorphous HNAB films were deposited onto three different thicknesses of tantalum substrates, crystallized to HNAB-II at 35°C, then assembled into a symmetrical slab configuration by joining two identical small-scale samples to form the “micro-sandwich.” The experiment successfully measured velocity of the tantalum liner during detonation. The experimental data were provided to modelers to validate EOS generated using the CTH shock-physics code.This project was funded by Sandia National Laboratories’ Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program.Mechanical EngineeringMastersUniversity of New Mexico. Dept. of Mechanical EngineeringTruman, C. RandallTappan, Alexander S.Naseri Kouzehgarani, AsalPoroseva, Svetlan