Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Ejecta physics is a young field, having developed over the last 60 years or so. Essentially, ejecta forms as a spray of dense particles generated from the free surface of metals subjected to strong shocks, but the detailed mechanisms controlling the properties of this particulate ejecta are only now being fully elucidated. The field is dynamic and rapidly growing, with military and industrial applications, and applications to areas such as fusion research.
This Special Issue on Ejecta reports the current state of the art in ejecta physics, describing experimental, theoretical and computational work by research groups around the world. While much remains to be done, the dramatic recent progress in the field, some of it first reported here, means that this volume provides a particularly timely review.
In this foreword, we provide a brief historical overview of the development of ejecta physics, to define the context for the work in the rest of this Special Issue.
A Brief History of Ejecta Physics
1950s and 1960s
There exists anecdotal evidence that ejecta research began in the 1950s, but little of this early research was documented publicly. In Russia, the ejecta phenomenon was first observed in plate impact experiments, and shown to be dependent on the initial surface roughness [1]. The Los Alamos PHERMEX radiographic facility was used to study the production and interaction of jets from shocked surfaces, starting from its very first shot in 1963 [2]. By 1969, Bristow and Hyde [3] describe the results of a mature program in the UK using photographic imaging of ejecta processes to infer whether melt had occurred at the surface of shocked materials. They showed that drive nonuniformity and subsurface fragmentation (spall/scabbing) were also contributory factors in determining the nature of ejecta produced.
1970s
The earliest published ejecta research was done by James Asay [4]. Asay went on to develop a non-radiographic ejecta diagnostic, the eponymous Asay foil [5]. Later, he developed a prescriptive model of ejecta, where he associated the amount of mass ejected from a shocked surface to the volume of surface defects, the rise time of the shock impulse, the yield strength of the material, and the phase of the material on release, i.e., liquid or solid [6]; interestingly he also observed that ejecta production was independent over broad ranges to the peak loading stress \(P_S\). Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) also became active in the development of ejecta diagnostics, as released by Hopson and Olinger [7].
1980s
In the 80s, more research is reported, most notably from France [8,9,10,11,12]. These were measurements of the ejecta source from shock loaded roughened surfaces of Ta, Sn and Pb-alloys. The diagnostics included soft radiography and the Asay foil technique. Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) also reported studies of ejecta from shock loaded Pb [13]. In this period we also see the introduction of piezoelectric probes, which were developed as an alternative means of direct measurement of ejecta momentum [14]. The 80s also saw first reports on ejecta transport [15], models for particle drag [16] and on the dynamic sizing of ejecta from shock loaded materials through use of forward Mie scattering techniques and a streak camera [17].
By the end of the 80s, in a period of about 15 years, multiple ejecta source measurement techniques were in use (soft radiography, the Asay foil and piezoelectric probes), ejecta production from solids and liquids had been documented, and initial transport and sizing experiments performed. This research was reported from France, the UK and US.
1990s
During this decade, ejecta research expanded further. Most notably, the first reported dynamic ejecta sizing with Holographic techniques are reported from LANL [18]. We now see reported research from Russia in planar and cylindrical geometries [1], and another report of LLNL research [19].
In [20], Cloutman developed a detailed Monte-Carlo numerical model for ejecta production and transport, based on previous work on the modeling of diesel sprays.
By the end of the 90s we now see reports of ejecta research from France, Russia, the UK and US. The research had focused on measuring the ejecta source term from solid- and melted-metals with radiography and Asay foils, the size of the source from Mie scattering and holographic techniques, and initial studies of ejecta transport in gases. An initial prescriptive source model had been proposed, but no physics model had emerged.
2000s
In the first decade of the 21st century, more diagnostics were developed, and much more work was done on the ejecta source and sizing of the ejecta particles. Notably, understanding the difference between ejecta from solid versus liquid materials became a focus, as Asay had postulated that liquids eject much more mass than do solids, based on his studies of Pb [6]. For these reasons, Sn became an interesting material to study given its accessible phases: shocks from the solid \(\beta\)- to the solid \(\gamma\)-phase, and releasing to either the solid \(\beta\)-phase (\(P_S \lesssim 19.5\) GPa), a mixed solid liquid phase (\(19.5 \lesssim P_S \lesssim 33\) GPa), a \(100\%\) liquid phase (\(33 \lesssim P_S \lesssim 50\) GPa), or from \(\beta\) to liquid on shock, and releasing to \(100\%\) liquid when \(P_S \gtrsim 50\) GPa [21].
Work at LANL validated a new ejecta diagnostic, lithium niobate piezoelectric pins [22], which are compact and lend themselves to use in constricted geometries. The LANL work also began the best controlled study of the ejecta source. That lengthy study, which continues today, focussed on Sn. The work investigated the Sn ejecta source by varying \(P_S\) with supported (flyer plates/guns) and unsupported (high explosively driven, HE) shock loading techniques, and by varying the surface finishes [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31].
There was of course other research at other institutions. For example, ejecta from materials shock loaded with a laser drive were reported [32], where the researchers studied fragmentation of Sn, even capturing the fragments for post experimental reconstruction of the size and fragmentation patterns. Another sizing diagnostic, an optical microscope, was reported in [33]. Direct numerical simulation of ejecta production was first reported in 2004 using molecular dynamics calculations [34, 35], and in 2007 using a continuum code [36].
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century much had been learned about ejecta. Notably, the realization that ejecta production is a special limiting case of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability [37, 38] (RMI) where the Atwood number \(A_t = -1\) started to have a strong influence. This had been known in general terms for some time, but the knowledge of how to apply the physics was incomplete.
2010s
The present decade has seen the application of proton radiography to study RM unstable phenomena, and ejecta studies began to focus more on RMI physics and RMI ejecta models; research on RMI models is now extensively reported [39,40,41,42].
The implementation of further Monte-Carlo models for modeling ejecta flows has been reported [43,44,45,46]. Further, simulations of ejecta formation from the nanometer to centimeter scales was also reported [42, 47]. The effects of shapes of the surface perturbations on the surface perturbations was first reported in [6], but the 2010s also saw the shape of the perturbations on the ejecta source studied with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations [47, 48].
Studies of the ejecta source also continued, with a report of work on Pb [49], and more results from the LANL Sn work [50]. The LANL source term work was extended to ejecta from a second shockwave [51, 52], and the full LANL Sn ejecta set for supported and unsupported shock loading at a single finish was released [53, 54].
The ejecta source and RM sheet breakup has also been studied extensively with MD simulations [55,56,57,58,59,60], and more research on dynamic particle sizing diagnostics is reported, works that includes holography and Mie scattering [61, 62].
An area of ejecta research beyond the simple ejecta source is now being investigated rather broadly: transport [63], and the investigation of the ejecta sizes is even being studied with transport dynamics [64,65,66]. Much work on transport is now beginning, including ejecta breakup dynamics in gases [67].
Importantly, out of ejecta research evolved a new approach to diagnose material strength at high strains and strain rates. The idea was first proposed and studied with simulations by Piriz et al. [68, 69]. Experiments based on the Piriz idea with \(A_t> 0\), extended to the situation where \(A_t = -1\), in the ejecta regime, are reported in [40, 70], and since then the approach has been extensively studied [71, 72].
By acceptance of this article, the publisher recognizes that the British Crown and the U.S. Government retain a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or to allow others to do so, for U.S. or British Government purposes.
References
Ogorodnikov VA, Ivanov AG, Mikhailov AL, Kryukov NI, Tolochko AP, Golubev VA (1998) Particle ejection from the shocked free surface of metals and diagnostic methods for these particles. Combust Explo Shock Waves 34:696–700
Mader CL, Neal TR, Dick RD (1980) LASL Phermex data, vol I, II, III. University of California Press, Berkeley
Bristow WF, Hyde EF (1969) Surface spray from explosively accelerated metal plates as an indicator of melting. Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Record number ES 4/1152 from the UK National Archive. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Asay JR (1976) Ejection of material from shocked surfaces. Appl Phys Lett 29:284–287
Asay JR (1978) Thick-plate technique for measuring ejecta from shocked surfaces. J Appl Phys 49:6173–6175
Asay JR, Bertholf LD (1978) A model for estimating the effects of surface rougness on mass ejection from shocked materials. Sandia Laboratories Technical Reports SAND78-1256
Hopson JW Jr, Olinger BW (1977) Capacitor gauge technique for measuring ejecta from shocked surfaces. Los Alamos National Laboratory Technical Reports LA-UR-77-2524
Andriot P, Chapron P, Olive P (1982) Ejection of material from shocked surfaces of tin, tantalum and lead-alloys. AIP Conf Proc 78:505–509
Elias P, Chapron P (1986) Experimental techniques for measuring mass ejection from shock loaded metallic sample. In: The 4th APS Topical Conference on Shock Waves Condensed Matter, Plenum, NY, Spokane, WA, 22–25 July 1985, pp 645–650
Cheret R, Chapron P, Elias P, Martineau J (1986) Mass ejection from the free-surface of shock loaded metallic samples. In: The 4th APS Topical Conference on Shock Waves Condensed Matter, Plenum, NY, Spokane, WA, 22–25 July 1985, pp 651–654
Elias P, Chapron P, Laurent B (1988) Detection of melting in release for a shock-loaded tin sample using the reflectivity measurement method. Opt Commun 66:100–106
Elias P, Chapron P, Laurent B (1988) Experimental determination of the pressure inducing melting in release for shock-loaded metallic samples. In: The 5th APS Topical Conference on Shock Waves Condensed Matter, Elsevier, NY, Monterey, CA, 20–23 July 1987, pp 171–173
Couch R, Shaw L, Bartlett R, Steinmetz L, Behrendt W, Firpo C (1985) Surface properties of shocked lead. Lawrence Livermore Technical Reports UCRL-90817 (referred to as a preprint)
Speight CS, Harper L, Smeeton VS (1989) Piezoelectric probe for the detection of shock-induced spray and spall. Rev Sci Instrum 60:3802–3808
Elias P, Chapron P, Mondot M (1990) Experimental study of the slowing down of shock-induced matter ejection into argon gas. In: Proceedings APS, conference shock compress condensed matter 89 (Albuquerque, NM), North Holland, NY, pp 783–786
Cowperthwaite NW (1989) The interaction of a plane shock and a dense spherical inhomogeneity. Physica D 37:264–269
McMillan CF (1986) Size measurements of high velocity particle distributions. SPIE 674:298–297
Sorenson D, Malone R, Frogget B, Ciarcia C, Tunnell T, Fleur R (1997) Particle distribution measurements using in-line Fraunhofer holography. SPIE 2869:206–213
Dunning M, Jacoby B (1995) Ejecta production from shocked metal samples. In: Abstracts of the 4th Zababakhin scientific talks. Russian Federal Nuclear Center, Chelyabinsk Region, Snezhinsk, Russia, 16–20 October
Cloutman LD (1991) A numerical model of particulate transport. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Technical Reports UCRL-ID-106618
Mabire C, Hereil P-L (2000) Shock induced polymorphic transition and melting of tin up to 53 GPa (experimental study and modelling). J Phys IV 10:749–754
Buttler WT, Zellner MB, Olson RT, Rigg PA, Hixson RS, Hammerberg JE, Obst AW, Payton JR (2007) Dynamic comparisons of piezoelectric diagostics. J Appl Phys 101:063547
Vogan WS, Anderson WW, Grover M, Hammerberg JE, King NSP, Lamoreaux SK, Macrum G, Morley KB, Rigg PA, Stevens GD, Turley WD, Veeser LR, Buttler WT (2005) Piezoelectric characterization of ejecta from shocked tin surfaces. J Appl Phys 98:113508
Buttler WT, Routley N, Hixson RS, King NSP, Olson RT, Rigg PA, Rimmer A, Zellner MB (2007) Method to separate and determine the amount of ejecta produced in a second material-fragmentation event. Appl Phys Lett 90:151921
Zellner MB, Grover M, Hammerberg JE, Hixson RS, Iverson AJ, Macrum GS, Morley KB, Obst AW, Olson RT, Payton JR, Rigg PA, Routley N, Stevens GD, Turley WD, Veeser L, Buttler WT (2007) Effects of shock-breakout pressure on ejection of micron-scale material from shocked tin surfaces. J Appl Phys 102:013522
Zellner MB, Vogan McNeil W, Gray GT III, Huerta DC, King NSP, Neal GE, Valentine SJ, Payton JR, Rubin J, Stevens GD, Turley WD, Buttler WT (2008) Surface preparation methods to enhance dynamic surface property measurements of shocked metal surfaces. J Appl Phys 103:083521
Zellner MB, Vogan-McNeil W, Hammerberg JE, Hixson RS, Obst AW, Olson RT, Payton JR, Rigg PA, Routley N, Stevens GD, Turley WD, Veeser L, Buttler WT (2008) Erratum: Effects of shock-breakout pressure on ejection of material from shocked tin surfaces [J. Appl. Phys. 102, 013522, 2007]. J Appl Phys 103:109901
Zellner MB, Vogan-McNeil W, Hammerberg JE, Hixson RS, Obst AW, Olson RT, Payton JR, Rigg PA, Routley N, Stevens GD, Turley WD, Veeser L, Buttler WT (2008) Probing the underlying physics of ejecta production from shocked Sn samples. J Appl Phys 103:123502
Zellner MB, Buttler WT (2008) Exploring Richtmyer–Meshkov instability phenomena and ejecta cloud physics. Appl Phys Lett 93:114102
Zellner MB, Dimonte G, Germann TC, Hammerberg JE, Rigg PA, Stevens GD, Turley WD, Buttler WT (2009) Influence of shockwave profile on ejecta. AIP Conf Proc 1195:1047–1050
Zellner MB, Byers M, Hammerberg JE, Germann TC, Dimonte G, Rigg PA, Stevens GD, Turley WD, Buttler WT (2009) Influence of shockwave profile on ejection of micron-scale material from shocked Sn surfaces: an experimental study. In: DYMAT 2009—9th international conference on the mechanical and physical behaviour of materials under dynamic loading 1:89–94
de Rességuier Signor L, Dragon A, Boustie M, Rou G, Llorca F (2007) Experimental investigation of liquid spall in laser shock-loaded Sn. J Appl Phys 101:013506
Ogorodnikov VA, Mikhaĭlov AL, Burtsev VV, Lobastov SA, Erunov SV, Romanov AV, Rudnev AV, Kulakov EV, Bazarov YuB, Glushikhin VV, Kalashnik IA, Tsyganov VA, Tkachenko BI (2009) Detecting the ejection of particles from the free surface of a shock-loaded sample. J Exp Theor Phys 109:530–535
Germann TC, Hammerberg JE, Holian BL, Furnish MD, Gupta YM, Forbes JW (2006) Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of ejecta formation in copper. AIP Conf Proc 706:285–288
Germann TC, Dimonte F, Hammerberg JE, Kadau K, Quenneville J, Zellner MB (2009) Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of particulate ejection and Richtmyer-Meshkov instability development in shocked copper. In: DYMAT 2009—9th International conference on the mechanical and physical behaviour of materials under dynamic loading 1:1499–1505
Grieves, B (2007) 2D direct numerical simulation of ejecta production. In: Legrand M, Vandenboomgaerde M (eds) Proceedings 10th International workshop physics compressible turbulent mixing, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, pp. 95–98
Richtmyer RD (1960) Taylor instability in shock acceleration of compressible fluids. Comm Pure Appl Math 13:297–319
Meshkov EE (1969) Instability in shock-accelerated boundary separating two gasses. Izv AN SSSR, Mekh Zhidk Gasa 4(5):151–157
Buttler WT, Oró DM, Preston DL, Mikaelian KO, Cherne FJ, Hixson RS, Mariam FG, Morris C, Stone JB, Terrones G, Tupa D (2012) The study of high-speed surface dynamics using a pulsed proton beam. AIP Conf Proc 1426:999–1002
Buttler WT, Oró DM, Preston DL, Mikaelian KO, Cherne FJ, Hixson RS, Mariam FG, Morris C, Stone JB, Terrones G, Tupa D (2012) Unstable Richtmyer–Meshkov growth of solid and liquid metals in vacuum. J Fluid Mech 703:60–84
Georgievskaya AB, Raevsky VA (2012) Estimation of the spectral characteristics of particles ejected from the free surfaces of metals and liquids under a shockwave effect. AIP Conf Proc 1426:1007–1010
Dimonte G, Terrones G, Cherne FJ, Ramaprabhu P (2013) Ejecta source model based on the nonlinear Richtmyer–Meshkov instability. J Appl Phys 113:024905
Fung J, Harrison AK, Chitanvis S, Margulies J (2013) Ejecta source and transport model in the FLAG hydrocode. Comput Fluids 83:177–186
Liu Y, Grieves B (2014) Ejecta production and transport from a shocked Sn coupon. J Fluids Eng 136:091202
Mikhailov AL, Ogorodnikov VA, Sasik VS, Raevskii VA, Lebedev AI, Zotov DE, Erunov Syrunin MA, Sadunov VD, Nevmerzhitskii NV, Lobastov SA, Burtsev VV, Mishanov AV, Kulakov EV, Satarova AV, Georgievskaya AB, Knyazev VN, Kleshchevnikov OA, Antipov MV, Glushikhin VV, Yurtov IV, Utenkov AA, Senkovskii ED, Abakumov SA, Presnyakov DV, Kalashnik IA, Panov KN, Arinin VA, Tkachenko BI, Filyaev VN, Chapaev AV, Andramanov AV, Lebedeva MO, Igonin VV (2014) Experimental-calculation simulation of the ejection of particles from a shock-loaded surface. J Exp Theor Phys 118:785–797
McFarland JA, Black WJ, Dahal J, Morgan BE (2016) Computational study of the shock driven instability of a multiphase particle-gas system. Phys Fluids 28:024105
Cherne FJ, Hammerberg JE, Andrews MH, Karkhanis V, Ramaprabhu C (2015) On shock driven jetting of liquid from non-sinusoidal surfaces into a vacuum. J Appl Phys 118:185901
Li B, Zhao FP, Wu HA, Luo SN (2014) Microstructure effects on shock-induced surface jetting. J Appl Phys 115:073504
Chen Y, Hu H, Tang T, Ren G, Li Q, Wang R, Buttler WT (2012) Experimental study of ejecta from shock melted lead. J Appl Phys 111:053509
Monfared SK, Oró DM, Grover M, Hammerberg JE, La Lone BM, Pack CL, Schauer MM, Stevens GD, Stone JB, Turley WD, Buttler WT (2014) Experimental observations on the links between surface perturbation parameters and shock-induced mass ejection. J Appl Phys 116:063504
Buttler WT, Oró DM, Mariam FG, Saunders A, Andrews MJ, Cherne FJ, Hammerberg JE, Hixson RS, Morris C, Olson RT, Preston DL, Stone JB, Tupa D, Vogan-McNeil W (2014) Explosively driven two-shockwave tools with applications. J Phys: Conf Ser 500:112014
Buttler WT, Oró DM, Olson RT, Cherne FJ, Hammerberg JE, Hixson RS, Monfared SK, Pack CL, Rigg PA, Stone JB, Terrones G (2014) Second shock ejecta measurements with an explosively driven two-shockwave drive. J Appl Phys 116:103519
Buttler WT (2015) Ejecta in multiphase flows. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Technical Reports LA-UR-15-22203
Schwarzkopf J, Balachandar S, Buttler W (2016) Compressible multiphase flow. Multiphase Flow Handbook, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Durand O, Soulard L (2012) Large-scale molecular dynamics study of jet breakup and ejecta production from shock-loaded copper with a hybrid method. J Appl Phys 111:044901
Durand O, Soulard L (2013) Power law and exponential ejecta size distributions from the dynamic fragmentation of shock-loaded Cu and Sn metals under melt conditions. J Appl Phys 114:194902
He A-M, Wang P, Shao J-L, Duan S-Q (2014) Molecular dynamics simulations of jet breakup and ejecta production from a grooved Cu surface under shock loading. Chin Phys B 23:047102
Guowu R, Yongtao C, Tigang T, Qingzhong L (2014) Ejecta production from shocked Pb surface via molecular dynamics. J Appl Phys 116:133507
Durand O, Soulard L (2015) Mass-velocity and size-velocity distributions of ejecta cloud from shock-loaded tin surface using atomistic simulations. J Appl Phys 117:165903
He A-M, Wang P, Shao J-L (2015) Molecular dynamics simulations of ejecta size distributions for shock-loaded Cu with a wedged surface groove. Comput Mater Sci 98:271–277
Zuoyou L, Zhenxiong L, Zhenqing L, Yan Y, Zeren L, Jie Z, Jun L (2010) High-speed microjet particles measurement using in-line pulsed holography. J Appl Phys 108:113110
Monfared SK, Buttler WT, Frayer DK, Grover M, La Lone BM, Stevens GD, Stone JB, Turley WD, Schauer MM (2015) Ejected particle size measurement using mie scattering in high explosive driven shockwave experiments. J Appl Phys 117:223105
Oró DM, Hammerberg JE, Buttler WT, Mariam FG, Morris C, Rousculp C, Stone JB (2012) A class of ejecta transport test problems. AIP Conf Proc 1426:1351–1354
Prudhomme G, Mercier P, Berthe L, Bénier J, Frugier P-A (2014) Frontal and tilted PDV probes for measuring velocity history of laser-shock induced calibrated particles. J Phys: Conf Ser 500:142022
Prudhomme G, Mercier P, Berthe L (2014) PDV experiments on shock-loaded particles. J Phys: Conf Ser 500:142027
Fedorov AV, Mikhaylov AL, Finyushin SA, Kalashnikov DA, Chudakov EA, Butusov EI, Gnutov IS (2015) Detection of the multiple spallation parameters and the internal structure of a particle cloud during shock-wave loading of a metal. J Exp Theor Phys 122:685–688
Andrews MJ, Preston DL (2014) TAB models for liquid sheet and ligament breakup. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Technical Reports LA-UR-14-26937
Piriz AR, Lopez-Cela JJ, Tahir NA, Hoffmann DHH (2008) Richtmyer–Meshkov instability in elastic-plastic media. Phys Rev E 78:056401
Piriz AR, Lopez-Cela JJ, Tahir NA (2009) Richtmyer–Meshkov instability as a tool for evaluating material strength under extreme conditions. Nucl Instrum Meth Phys Res A 606:139–141
Dimonte G, Terrones G, Cherne FJ, Germann TC, Dupont V, Kadau K, Buttler WT, Oró DM, Morris C, Preston DL (2011) Use of the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability to infer yield stress at high-energy densities. Phys Rev Lett 107:264502
Prime MB, Vaughan DE, Preston DL, Buttler WT, Chen SR, Oró DM, Pack C (2014) Using growth and arrest of Richtmyer–Meshkov instabilities and Lagrangian simulations to study high-rate material strength. J Phys 500:112051
Prime MB, Buttler WT, Sjue SK, Jensen BJ, Mariam FG, Oró Pack CL, Stone JB, Tupa D, Vogan-McNeil W (2016) Using Richtmyer–Meshkov instabilities to estimate metal strength at very high rates. J Dyn Behav Mater 1:191–197
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Buttler, W.T., Williams, R.J.R. & Najjar, F.M. Foreword to the Special Issue on Ejecta. J. dynamic behavior mater. 3, 151–155 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40870-017-0120-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40870-017-0120-8