A University of Iowa professor of mechanical engineering is investigating an innovative approach to a clearer, more detailed understanding of how energetic materials, such as solid rocket propellants or explosives, transition from atomic-scale reactions to major explosions. 

H.S. Udaykumar, Roy J. Carver Professor of Engineering and associate dean for research and faculty in the College of Engineering, secured a 4.5-year, $982,705 grant from the Department of Defense, Air Force Office of Scientific Research to further the project.

“We need this knowledge to understand how to make safer rockets, design detonation engines for hypersonic vehicles, and handle shock-sensitive materials," Udaykumar said.

The project shifts the paradigm of calculating the shock-to-detonation reaction in energetic materials from a sequential, step-by-step process to an all at once approach called direct numerical simulation (DNS).

The DNS process will be executed on exa-scale computers, currently the fastest computing machines in use, operating at a billion times the speed of a desktop computer. This is made possible by new algorithms, better models, and improved simulation techniques for solving large systems of equations.

“In computational terms, we are swinging for the fences here, resolving materials down to atomistic scales and trying to capture every fine detail of how a tiny spark grows to explosively consume the material,” Udaykumar said.