Shocked microparticles that produce sustained temperatures exceeding 5000 K within nanoseconds

Author

• Siva Valluri, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
• Edward Dreizin
• Lakshay Bansal
• Dana Dlott

Abstract

Aluminum combustion with inorganic oxidizers produces more volumetric energy than organic explosives, but for Al additives to produce stronger detonations, energy release must occur in nanoseconds. We shocked individual microparticles of a ball-milled 8Al/3CuO compos ite powder characterized by electron microscopy. Optical pyrometry and hyperspectral imaging determined the temperatures and imaged hot spots. The adiabatic flame temperature at ambient pressure is limited by the abrupt rise of the heat capacity at the 2835K boiling point of the elemental Cu product. After shock compression, a large part of the inhomogeneously heated particles rose to extreme temperatures including hot spots exceeding 7000K and bulk regions above 5000K lasting at least 75ns. We explained these high temperatures as arising from aluminum-enclosed oxidizer clusters where Cu vapor was temporarily confined during and after the shock. The confined vapor ele vates the Cu boiling point, leading to ultrahigh temperatures.

Recommended Citation

S. Valluri et al., "Shocked microparticles that produce sustained temperatures exceeding 5000 K within nanoseconds," Applied Physics Letters, AIP Publishing, Aug 2026.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0349459

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2026 AIP Publishing, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

24 Aug 2026