Effect of shock compression on aluminum particles in condensed media

Specimens consisting of either spherical or flake aluminum particles saturated with liquid heptane were subjected to reflected shock pressures on the order of 20-30 GPa. Postmortem analysis of the spherical powder shows that while average size does not significantly change, surface morphology is no longer spherical but sharp edged with evidence of shear and particle break-up. A similar analysis for flakes shows break down to finer particles one order less than the original flake size. This suggests that the oxide layer was damaged and that bare aluminum was exposed, thus increasing aluminum particle sensitivity to reaction