English

A Hotspots Better Half: Non-Equilibrium Intra-Molecular Strain in Shock Physics

Materials Science 2020-12-22 v1

Abstract

Shockwave interactions with material microstructure localizes energy into hotspots, which act as nucleation sites for complex processes such as phase transformations and chemical reactions. To date, hotspots have been described via their temperature fields. Nonreactive, all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of shock-induced pore collapse in a molecular crystal show that more energy is localized as potential energy (PE) than can be inferred from the temperature field and that PE localization persists through thermal diffusion. The origin of the PE hotspot is traced to large intra-molecular strains, storing energy in modes readily available for chemical decomposition.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.10482,
  title  = {A Hotspots Better Half: Non-Equilibrium Intra-Molecular Strain in Shock Physics},
  author = {Brenden W. Hamilton and Matthew P. Kroonblawd and Chunyu Li and Alejandro Strachan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.10482},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Supplemental Material appended to bottom of manuscript document, 19 total pages, 8 total figures, manuscript is 12 pages 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T21:05:17.276Z