Monday  |  Executive CD  |  05:40 PM–06:00 PM

#19758, Experimental Investigation of Sensing in Polymer Bonded Energetic Materials with MWCNTs and Aluminum Powder as Fuel Exposed to Elevated Temperature

This experimental investigation is to gain an insight into the strain and damage sensing abilities of binder with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and conductive grains under thermal loading. Self-sensing is achieved by the addition of MWCNTs in the binder system where networks of MWCNTs provide a piezoelectric behavior when are subjected to compressive loading. Polydimethylsilioxane (PDMS) an elastomer is a commonly used binder in a polymer bonded energetic materials. Aluminum grains (AL) are used as fuel and Multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) system to improve the sensing abilities of the material. Exploratory results show that PDMS has no sensing abilities as PDMS is a non-conducting material thus when sample is placed in an environmental chamber and heated to 80 0C electrical resistances increase. Samples with MWCNTs there is a rise in electrical resistance when samples are heated to 80 0C and there is drop when the samples are held at 80 0C. Samples that have MWCNTs and AL show a significantly lower resistance at room temperature than just MWCNTs samples, once these samples are heated there is a drop in electrical resistance corresponding to increase in temperature. These indications show sensing of the material which is a preliminary study in the nanoparticles induced in polymer bonded energetic materials exposed to higher temperature.

Viswajit Talluru   Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Shivansh Shah   Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Gary Seidel   Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University