The shock wave compaction of ceramic powders

Abstract

Joint theoretical and experimental investigations have allowed to realize an approach with use of mathematical and physical modeling of processes of a shock wave compaction of ceramic powders. The aim of this study was to obtain a durable low-porosity compact sample. The explosive compaction technology is used in this problem because ceramic powders such as boron carbide and aluminum oxide is an extremely hard and refractory material. Therefore, its compaction by traditional methods requires special equipment and considerable expenses. In order to better understand the influence of the loading conditions and, in particular, to study the effect of detonation velocity, explosive thickness and explosion pressure on the properties of the final sample, the problem of compaction of the powder in an axisymmetric case using the conditions of the above experiments have been numerically solved. Thus, using the technology of explosive compaction, compact samples of boron carbide and aluminum oxide are obtained. On the basis of experimental and numerical studies of shock waves propagation, the optimum scheme and parameters of dynamic compaction of boron carbide and aluminum oxide are determined in order to maximize the density and the conservation of the samples after dynamic loading.