On reactive shear bands

Abstract

One mechanism for ignition of propellants and explosives involves shear banding, in which the healing due to visco-plastic effects combines with the reactive heating to reduce the critical size. To study this process, the analysis of Frank-Kamenetskii is generalized herein to account for mechanical effects (shear). By means of a dimensional analysis and numerical integration the general solution is reduced to a graph involving a dimensionless width and a dimensionless heating.