Development of Quantified Laser-Driven Pressure-Shear Experiments

Shear loading has been shown to lower reaction thresholds in energetic and reactive materials. However, the complexity of implementing such experiments on a gas gun has limited their application. In this work we present a novel, table-top nanosecond laser-driven testbed coupled with photonic doppler velocimetry (PDV) to enable high through-put pressure-shear experiments with a quantifiable shear stress. Preliminary results using this platform to study mechanical initiation of NiAl multilayers are also discussed.