The Energetics lab is equipped for manufacture, characterization,, and combustion of energetic materials. The lab features reinforced test cells / testing areas, an indoor subscale rocket test stand, ~50 g high explosive detonation facility, and high bay door access, an experiment draft fan ventilation system, and high flow room air exhaust system. Some specific equipment and capabilities of the lab include:
Combustion and Diagnostics
Pressurized, optically accessible, remotely operated combustion vessels (vacuum to 21 MPa pressure)
Electromagnetic insult resonant microwave-combustion cavity (S-band) with various CW and microsecond-pulsed power sources and power drivers up to 1.4 kW CW.
Programmable, high heating rate temperature-jump (t-jump) power driver (in-house fabricated) and electrically heated filament experimental fixtures. Heating rates of ~103 to ~107 °C/s possible
Solid rocket motor static test stand
Windowed, gram-scale optically accessible detonation experimentation chamber
High speed visual / near IR cinematography
Visible spectroscopy (~300 to 800 nm, 50 Hz, ~2 nm resolution)
NIR emisison spectroscopy, 1.3 kHz
Two-color high-speed video pyrometry, ~10 kHz
Ultrafast heated filament thermal ignition diagnostics
Long focal distance microscopic optics
High pressure oxygen calorimeter
Constant volume combustion experimentation with MS product gas analysis
Instrumented tube confined combustion apparatus
SLR still photo camera, handheld video cameras
Piezoelectric dynamic pressure transducers
High speed oscilloscopes and National Instruments data acquisition (up to 25 GSa/sec, 4 GHz bandwidth)
PC and laptop for data acquisition and post processing
CO2 laser (Synrad 100 W CW)
Quantum cascade laser (~100 mW, ~9.5 to 10.5 µm tuning range 1 MHz pulsed)
High-speed IR detectors (2 MHz)
Low power VIS lasers: Ignition and ilumination
Synthesis/Fabrication
3D printers (various)
SPEX 6750 cryogenic ball mill
SPEX 8000 ball mill
Precision analytical balances
Branson 400W sonicating cell disruptor with sonication horn
Rotap sieve shaker
Carver 3851 20 ton isostatic press and die tooling
Vacuum oven
Inert gas processing chamber
Fume hood space
Programmable heat treatment furnace (1200 °C max temperature)
Explosion proof propellant curing oven
Storage for flammables, oxidizers, corrosives, and secured magazien storage for hazard class 1.1 and 1.3 materials
Energetic Material Characterization
DSC/TGA hyphenated instrument with MS/FTIR online evolved gas analysis. Netzsch Jupiter F1 DSC/TGA; Netzsch Aeolos MS; Bruker Tensor FT-IR with high speed MCT detector; heated transfer lines and pulsed injection.
Impact sensitivity testing machine (in-house fabricated)
Electrostatic discharge sensitivity testing machine (in-house fabricated)
Other Facilities Available at ISU (colleagues, user facilities)
X-ray facilities (ISU CNDE)--four X-ray laboratories for real time, high speed radiography and computed tomography. 320 keV source, 2 µm spot size. In-house cluster for tomographic reconstruction
FEI Quanta environmental SEM microscope with heated stage (100 °C/min max rate, 1000 °C max temperature) (MARL)
Scintag XDS-2000 powder X-ray difractometer with heated stage (CIF)
Micromeritics ASAP 2020 surface area analyzer (CIF)
Metallography and microscopy sample preparation (MARL)