Development of an underwater dynamic compaction technique for making Al-based composites

In the present investigation an apparatus for underwater explosive compaction of Al composites is developed. To evaluate the performance of the apparatus, underwater shock pressure was measured using manganin-gauge and the pressure was also estimated through numerical simulation. The measured pressure showed good agreement with the simulated one. The applied pressure can be controlled easily by varying the height of water column in the apparatus. Since the impacting explosive pressure is not very high (5-15 GPa), the possibility of synthesizing various defect-free aluminum based composites is explored. The dynamic characteristics of the shock consolidation apparatus is corroborated by the high strength defect-free compacts