Polypropylene Shocked to Transition Thresholds

Polypropylene is one of the most widely used plastics, having attractive material properties

such as low density, mechanical strength, and high temperature performance. In this

study, shock compression experiments on polypropylene were performed to develop a

better understanding of the polypropylene response near its decomposition threshold,

around 21 GPa. The two-stage gas and powder guns at LANL were used to reach the

pressures needed for these experiments. Embedded electromagnetic gauge experiments

were used to obtain wave profiles within the material during decomposition, while

experiments diagnosed by PDV were used to obtain sound speeds at pressure above and

below the decomposition threshold.