The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology Seminar Series presents
Tailored and Multifunctional Propellants and Pyrotechnics
Dr. Steven F. Son
Alfred J. McAllister Professor of Mechanical Engineering
School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
Affiliated with Purdue’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories
Thursday, October 18th, 2018
3:00-4:00 pm
QNC 1501
All are welcome to attend.
Abstract: Fabrication techniques are being explored to determine their use in the manufacture of geometrically tailored propellants and to precisely deposit integrated reactives/pyrotechnics, including nanoscale energetic materials. Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) or rapid prototyping has allowed advancement in many fields because of the geometric flexibility it allows. By depositing layers of a material in a specific pattern layer by layer, one can develop very complicated multifunctional structures that would be difficult, if not impossible, with traditional manufacturing methods. The high geometric freedom accompanied with high resolution is appealing in many ways for the production of solid propellant or other deposited energetic materials. Additive manufacturing could allow the study of more complicated geometries that could produce tailored effects. In this presentation I will first present recent efforts in the deposition of nanoscale thermites inks. We have investigated the utility of three piezoelectric inkjet printers as energetic material deposition systems, focusing on evaluating the feasibility of each method to achieve the seamless integration of energetic material into small-scale electronic devices. In addition, we have developed new reactive characterization of these deposited materials. In particular, these experiments quantify effectiveness to heat, provide thrust, or fragment a silicon wafer. I will also summarize our recent results in printing high solids loaded propellants and fused deposition of pyrotechnic material; and will suggest future areas of research.
Steven F. Son is the Alfred J. McAllister Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and is affiliated with Purdue’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1994. Dr. Son has given invited presentations at national and international scientific meetings and is an author of over one hundred scientific publications. Prof. Son has served as an Associate Editor for AIAA’s Journal of Propulsion and Power and is the Editor in Chief of the JANNAF Journal of Propulsion and Energetics. Before his academic career, beginning in 2006, he was a Technical Staff Member and J. R. Oppenheimer Fellow, Technical Staff Member, and Project Leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the High Explosives Sciences Group.