Keith A. Gonthier

Biography

"Dr. Keith A. Gonthier is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering , Louisiana State University , USA. His research interests includes Computational Characterization of Impact Induced Multi-Scale Dissipation in Reactive Solids. He is serving as an editorial member and reviewer of several international reputed journals. Dr. Keith A. Gonthier is the member of many international affiliations. He has successfully completed his Administrative responsibilities. He has authored of many research articles/books related to Computational Characterization of Impact Induced Multi-Scale Dissipation in Reactive Solids. "

Research Interest

Reactive solid composites often consist of mixtures of high-explosive and metal particles (size ~ 0.001-200 microns), and polymeric binder. It remains fundamentally unclear, even for idealized systems, how microstructure (particle size, shape, and packing), component thermomechanical properties, and metal and binder mass fractions, affect impact induced heating of the explosive component which establishes their impact sensitivity and survivability. This modeling and computational study has three key objectives: 1) To examine particle-scale dissipation by compaction shocks in low density granular/particulate explosives (HMX, and HMX-Al composites). For this objective, mesoscale Modeling and Simulation (M&S) is performed using a technique that characterizes both volumetric and surface dissipation in granular systems that can induce thermally activated phenomena. The technique incorporates a thermoelastic-viscoplastic and stick-slip friction theory for each component to describe nonlinear deformation and motion, inter-particle friction, and plastic work. The relative importance of volumetric and surface dissipation within shock profiles is characterized, and its dependence on shock strength and metal mass fraction is examined. 2) To characterize how the microstructure and composition of low density granular explosives (HMX, and HMX-Al composites) affect shock induced formation of hot-spots. For this objective, inert temperature field predictions at the particle scale are combined with a thresholding strategy to identify hot-spot fields and to characterize their distributions in intensity, geometry, and spatial proximity in the deformed material configuration behind shocks. Such distributions are significant because they establish local ignition and control the rate of spread within the material. 3) To develop a thermodynamically compatible macroscale ignition and burn model that explicitly incorporates computationally derived relations between microstructure, shock strength, and hot-spots. The model is used to computationally examine how shock induced transition to detonation in low density HMX is affected by input shock strength and initial packing density.