Tailoring Energy Release and Improving Processes in Additively Manufactured Reactive and Energetic Materials

Additive manufacturing (or 3D printing) can be used to create complex parts with features that could not otherwise be made via traditional machining or casting techniques. For reactive and energetic materials, additive manufacturing opens new possibilities to architecture materials with unique features and then leverage those features to tailor energy release in an unprecedented way. However, reactive materials additive manufacturing is still in its infancy and is ripe with opportunities to investigate structure-function relationships and process improvements. To better understand the role of process on architecture and function, new tools must be developed to characterize the manufactured parts. Fortunately, additive manufacturing natively lends itself to in situ inspection and new diagnostics are being developed to probe the process and create “digital twins” of AM components. This presentation will begin with a general overview of additive manufacturing techniques employed in reactive and energetic materials with a specific focus on advancements made in pursuit of tailored energy release. We will then shift towards a discussion on in situ diagnostics developed for additively manufactured energetic materials and the impact on improving manufacturing processes and understanding phenomena in experiments.<br/> <br/>This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LLNL-ABS-849970.