High-Viscosity Paste De-aeration via Stream Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Highly-filled, high-viscosity pastes used in explosive devices face challenges in de-aeration and injection due to entrapped air, leading to suboptimal density and homogeneity, which affects the performance and efficiency of munitions like hollow charge devices.
Innovation Solution
A device and method that splits high-viscosity pastes into multiple streams, increasing surface area by a factor of at least 200, and uses a vacuum system for de-aeration, allowing for the injection of highly-filled, homogeneous pastes with densities exceeding 99% of Theoretical Maximum Density (TMD) into munitions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If high-viscosity paste is used to achieve high filler content (≥80 volume-%), then the energy and performance of the shaped charge is improved, but the paste becomes extremely difficult to de-aerate due to entrapped air
Solution Approach 1:
The paste is divided into multiple thin streams or sheets using a slot die or similar device, increasing the total surface area exposed to vacuum. This segmentation allows trapped air to escape more easily from the high-viscosity paste while maintaining the high filler content of ≥80 volume-%.
Solution Approach 2:
The paste is transformed from a bulk three-dimensional mass into thin two-dimensional sheets or streams. This dimensional change dramatically increases the surface-area-to-volume ratio, enabling effective de-aeration of high-viscosity paste through vacuum application on the expanded surface.
2Manufacturing precision
If conventional mixing and vacuum equipment is used, then low-viscosity mixtures can achieve 98-99% of theoretical density, but high-viscosity pastes retain significant entrapped air
Solution Approach 1:
The paste is segmented into thin streams or sheets before vacuum application, creating numerous small surfaces from which air can escape. This segmentation approach achieves superior de-aeration and density uniformity (≥98.5% of TMD) without requiring excessively complex vacuum equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical state of the paste is changed by expanding it into thin sheets, fundamentally altering the vacuum-deaeration process. This parameter change (from bulk to sheet form) enables effective air removal from high-viscosity pastes that would otherwise be impossible with conventional vacuum equipment.
3Quantity of substance
If high-viscosity paste (above 500-1000 KPa·seconds) is injected without de-aeration, then the paste maintains its high filler content, but air pockets form in the injected product
Solution Approach 1:
De-aeration is performed as a preliminary step before injection, removing entrapped air from the high-viscosity paste while it maintains its high filler content. This preliminary action ensures that no air pockets form during subsequent injection, guaranteeing product quality and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The paste is segmented into thin streams for de-aeration before injection, allowing complete air removal. This segmented approach maintains the high filler content (≥80 volume-%) while eliminating air pockets, ensuring both quantity and quality requirements are met.
4Manufacturing precision
If pressed plastic bonded explosives are used, then high solid content and homogeneity are achieved, but mechanical properties are poor and vulnerability is high
Solution Approach 1:
The paste is processed in a high-viscosity state (above 500-1000 KPa·seconds) rather than being pressed, fundamentally changing the manufacturing parameter. This allows high filler content (≥80 volume-%) and homogeneity to be achieved through controlled paste formation and de-aeration, while avoiding the mechanical degradation and vulnerability associated with pressing operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively eliminates occluded air, maintains homogeneity, and achieves high filler content, resulting in improved performance, precision, and efficiency of explosive devices by ensuring the paste reaches the desired density and homogeneity.
Implementation Method 1
uses a vacuum system for de-aeration
Implementation Method 2
uses a vacuum system for de-aeration, allowing for the injection of highly-filled, homogeneous pastes with densities exceeding 99% of Theoretical Maximum Density (TMD)
Implementation Method 3
splits high-viscosity pastes into multiple streams, increasing surface area by a factor of at least 200
Data Source
AI summary
A highly-filled paste, and a method and device of de-aerating and injecting the paste, the paste including: (a) a solid filler; (b) an organic binder, and (c) a residual gas, wherein the paste contains at least 80 volume-% of the solid filler and has a viscosity exceeding 100 kilopascal·seconds, wherein the filler, binder, and residual gas are intimately mixed so as to form a substantially homogeneous paste, and wherein a composition of the solid filler, binder, and residual gas is selected such that the homogeneous paste has: an average density greater than 98.5% of a Theoretical Maximum Density (TMD).