Chiara Pozzi

The way the mistery of the Mattei's case was solved

Enrico Mattei, the President of the Italian oil conglomerate, ENI, was about to land in Milan Linate Airport on October 27, 1962 when his airplane crashed on the ground due to a then unexplained accident. The investigation, reopened more than 30 years later, implied complete re-examining of the theories on macroscopic and lattice deformations under high velocity waves emanating from a small charge explosion. Various macro- and micro-structural changes are induced by an explosion and by the resulting shear stresses in metals exposed to it. At the microstructural level multiple slip bands or mechanical twins, induced from the pressure wave caused by an explosion, can be observed. The occurrence of either ones depend on the type of metal, the pressure and the strain rate. The temperature wave may also cause surface alterations. Different situations regarding stainless steels, aluminium, copper and gold alloys are analysed. Calculations to evaluate which deformation mechanism is eligible for different FCC metals and alloys are reported. Results of field explosion experiments are incorporated into the evaluation of microstructural signs possibly induced on metal targets by an unknown explosive event. Revisited theories were applied to the Mattei forensic case, reaching the conclusion that the aircraft had fallen following an on board small charge explosion.

Recent developments on the microstructural effects caused by small- charge explosions in FCC alloys

Metals exposed to small charge explosions, even in absence of overall deformation, show characteristic and permanent microstructural features, that can be related to blast wave properties, e.g. to the charge mass and the charge-to-target distance. In particular, Face Centered Cubic (FCC) alloys with low stacking fault energy may exhibit mechanical twinning due to the high strain rate caused by an explosion, even if in slower processes they mainly deform by slip. In some forensic science investigations, these crystallographic modifications, and particularly the occurrence of twinning, may be among the few remaining clues of a small charge explosion, and may be useful to hypothesize the nature and location of the charge. A wide experimental campaign was performed to correlate the blast wave properties with the ensuing modifications of FCC metal targets, and to investigate the microscopic deformation mechanisms leading to these modifications. In particular, it was attempted to identify the threshold conditions (charge-to-target distance, charge mass, and hence applied stress) that yield barely detectable microstructural modifications, and to study the transition from slip to twinning. FCC metal alloys, with low (α-brass, stainless steel), intermediate (copper, gold alloy), or high (aluminum alloy) stacking fault energy, were exposed to blast waves (caused by 50 or 100 g plastic explosive charges located at increasing charge-to-target distances) and then analyzed by X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and electron backscattered diffraction imaging. A comprehensive review of the most significant findings of the whole research, together with theoretical considerations on the slip and twinning deformation mechanisms, is here presented.