RESEARCH:

FUTURE DIRECTION

New energetic materials

The research focus of the Institute is on new materials with high energetic performance, ranging from oxidizers to metals. Its research on chemical synthesis of the high energy density materials includes the design of new synthetic routes that are safe, non-polluting and cost-effective.

Safety & performance

The Institute extends its research to physical and spectroscopic studies of selected energetic materials and metals even at the nano-scale. The critical issues of insensitivity and compatibility of energetic material compositions are examined in order to achieve new goals of enhanced energetic performance and the uncompromising demands of high safety standards.

Capability development

 Capability development will remain central to the future programs of the Institute in order to enable it to build a strong research foundation and new skills in advanced techniques and frontier technologies. Such new techniques like the detonation and deflagration calorimetry would enable a more precise understanding of the thermal principles governing detonation, deflagration and combustion processes of new energetic compositions.

 Modeling & simulation

The universal technique of computational modeling and simulation will extend  the Institute’s theoretical and basic research into diverse areas like identification of improvised energetic materials, optimization of new energetic compositions, or assessment of thermal hazard potential may it be time-to-thermal-runaway, adiabatic decomposition temperature rise, explosion potential, shock sensitivity, or critical cook-off temperature. The technique will also take its fundamental research from the bench to new applications.

Cutting edge technology

The cutting edge technology based on energetic and piezoelectric materials requires multidisciplinary skills. A case in point is the initiation train which is concerned with extremely fast processes operating at the detonation range where their mechanisms can be examined with precision using high speed camera. Such a technique would enable precise measurement within a very short time duration in order to derive physical parameters like  velocity of detonation of high energy materials, velocity of plasma evolved during detonation, detonation wave profile, estimation of C-J pressure, analysis of sympathetic detonation, critical diameter performance assessment, ignition delay or function time of an igniter.

The foregoing description therefore illustrates the kind of research that are of interest to EnRI.

Update :17 July 2008