Modeling of a self-sustaining ignition in a solid energetic material

Abstract

In the present work we analyze some necessary conditions for ignition of solid energetic materials by low velocity impact ignition mechanism. Basing on reported results of ab initio computations we assume that the energetic activation barriers for the primary endothermic dissociation in some energetic materials may be locally lowered due to the effect of shear strain caused by the impact. We show that the ignition may be initiated in regions with the reduced activation barriers, even at moderately low exothermicity of the subsequent exothermic reactions thus suggesting that the above regions may serve as "hot spots" for the ignition. We apply our results to analyze initial steps of ignition in DADNE and TATB molecular crystals.