Insights into local shockwave behavior and thermodynamics in granular materials from tomography-initialized mesoscale simulations

Abstract

Interpreting and tailoring the dynamic mechanical response of granular systems relies upon understanding how the initial arrangement of grains influences the compaction kinetics and thermodynamics. In this article, the influence of initial granular arrangement on the dynamic compaction response of a bimodal powder system (soda-lime distributed throughout a porous, fused silica matrix) was investigated through continuum-level and mesoscale simulations incorporating real, as-tested microstructures measured with X-ray tomography. By accounting for heterogeneities in the real powder composition, continuum-level simulations were brought into significantly better agreement with previously reported experimental data. Mesoscale simulations reproduced much of the previously unexplained experimental data scatter, gave further evidence of low-impedance mixture components dominating shock velocity dispersion, and crucially predicted the unexpectedly high velocities observed experimentally during the early stages of compaction. Moreover, only when the real microstructure was accounted for did simulations predict that small fractions of the fused silica matrix material would be driven into the β-quartz region of phase space. These results suggest that using real microstructures in mesoscale simulations is a critical step in understanding the full range of shock states achieved during dynamic granular compaction and interpreting solid phase distributions found in real planetary bodies.