Structural reactive materials (SRM) are materials that define the strength and structure and have an added benefit of exothermically reacting with properly initiated. This class of materials has been manufactured and studied for more than a decade with emphasis on higher strengths and higher density materials. This work will focus on fabrication of a low-strength and high-elongation metal composite with the objective of creating an SRM that can be formed and extruded. Extending from Lockheeds ICEPK technology, EMPI will fabricate metal composites with higher concentrations of ductile metal alloy binders. The goal is not to achieve maximum reaction energy, but to achieve maximum utility of the final SRM by create similar mechanical properties to other sheet and wire metals such as aluminum. A matrix of formulations will be fabricated and tested for formability, tensile strength, compressive strength, exothermic energy density, reaction onset temperature, and activation energy.
Benefit: Multiple commercial applications exist for this technology. This work may define a basic material production process for reactive and non-reactive applications. Ductile structural reactive materials can find immediate applications in munitions parts, munitions liners, oil-field shaped charge jet liners, breaching tools and many others.
Keywords: high-strain to failure, high-strain to failure, Ductile, Structure, Reactive Material, tailorable energy release, Formable, metal composite, extrudable
