Estimating the reaction onset for porous polymer systems

In this work a methodology for estimating the onset of reaction for porous polymer systems is presented. Shock Hugoniot data for a well-characterized polymer, polyurethane, is used to calibrate a functional relationship that captures the onset of reaction at several initial densities. In doing so, this function is then used to estimate the volume at which reaction is initiated in polyurethane at any initial density. The function is also extended to estimate the onset of reaction in less well-characterized polymer systems, polystyrene and SX358.