Symposium SF07-Advances in Reactive Materials Engineering

Reactive materials are composites or physical mixtures that exhibit self-sustaining exothermic reactions upon receiving an initial energy input. These materials are a unique subset of energetic materials that differ from explosives in that the reaction fronts propagate subsonically and reactivity can be engineered over many orders of magnitude by controlling the reactant length scales. Approaches to exercising this control include additive manufacturing, mechanical milling, thin film deposition, and particle size engineering. Reactive materials have been used in diverse fields including defense, joining/welding, pyrotechnics, transient electronics, and medicine, and new materials and advanced manufacturing methods are opening up new applications. Additionally, new diagnostics have been developed that are providing insights into reaction mechanisms that are particularly useful for validating atomistic and highly-resolved continuum-level simulations of thermal and mass transport in these materials. New approaches like machine-based learning may pave the way toward a mechanistic understanding of complex phenomena like particle combustion and aid in the development of new reactive materials for targeted applications. This symposium will focus on the latest research on processing, characterization, and modeling of reactive materials, with emphasis on (1) advanced manufacturing and diagnostic techniques, (2) fundamental materials science issues that must be tackled to develop advanced materials for next-generation pyrotechnic applications, and (3) new computational methodologies and tools for the simulation of the combustion of reactive materials. This field is constantly advancing, and this symposium will serve as a platform for the contributors to collectively consider upcoming challenges and research directions.

Topics will include:

Applications of reactive materials (joining, agent defeat, munitions, pyrotechnics, transient electronics, military flares, medical)
New materials for thermite or intermetallic reactions
Continuum and atomistic modeling of reactive material ignition and propagation
In situ and in operando characterization of reactive materials
Advanced manufacturing to expand the functionality of reactive materials
Modeling and AI for new materials discovery and development
The role of microstructure and edge effects on ignition and propagation
High throughput experimental techniques for generating machine learning training data
Scientific questions about reactive materials that can be answered with AI
Bridging the gap between atomic, micro-, and meso-scale phenomena
Safety and aging mechanisms in reactive materials