Seshadri, Pradeep K.
PARC: Physics-Aware Recurrent Convolutional Neural Networks to Assimilate Meso-scale Reactive Mechanics of Energetic Materials
Nguyen, Phong C. H., Nguyen, Yen-Thi, Choi, Joseph B., Seshadri, Pradeep K., Udaykumar, H. S., Baek, Stephen
Energetic materials (EM) such as propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics are key components in many military and civilian applications. EMs are composites of organic crystals, plasticizers, metals, and other inclusions, forming complex microstructural morphologies, which strongly influence the properties and performance characteristics of these materials (1). For instance, the sensitivity to impact and shock loading--one of the key performance parameters for the design of safe and reliable EMs--is strongly influenced by their microstructures (2-4). Voids, cracks, and interfaces in EM microstructures are potential sites for energy localization, i.e., the formation of hightemperature regions called "hotspots" (5-8). Such hotspots are considered to be critical if they grow and produce steady deflagration fronts (9). If a sufficient number of such critical hotspots are generated in the microstructure, chemical energy release can be rapid enough to couple with the incident shock wave, initiating a detonation. Therefore, microstructural features localize energy release at hotspots and shock-microstructure interactions can lead to a shock-to-detonation transition in EMs. 1
A physics-aware deep learning model for energy localization in multiscale shock-to-detonation simulations of heterogeneous energetic materials
Nguyen, Phong C. H., Nguyen, Yen-Thi, Seshadri, Pradeep K., Choi, Joseph B., Udaykumar, H. S., Baek, Stephen
Predictive simulations of the shock-to-detonation transition (SDT) in heterogeneous energetic materials (EM) are vital to the design and control of their energy release and sensitivity. Due to the complexity of the thermo-mechanics of EM during the SDT, both macro-scale response and sub-grid mesoscale energy localization must be captured accurately. This work proposes an efficient and accurate multiscale framework for SDT simulations of EM. We introduce a new approach for SDT simulation by using deep learning to model the mesoscale energy localization of shock-initiated EM microstructures. The proposed multiscale modeling framework is divided into two stages. First, a physics-aware recurrent convolutional neural network (PARC) is used to model the mesoscale energy localization of shock-initiated heterogeneous EM microstructures. PARC is trained using direct numerical simulations (DNS) of hotspot ignition and growth within microstructures of pressed HMX material subjected to different input shock strengths. After training, PARC is employed to supply hotspot ignition and growth rates for macroscale SDT simulations. We show that PARC can play the role of a surrogate model in a multiscale simulation framework, while drastically reducing the computation cost and providing improved representations of the sub-grid physics. The proposed multiscale modeling approach will provide a new tool for material scientists in designing high-performance and safer energetic materials.