Merzhanov Institute of Structural Macrokinetics
and Materials Science
Russian Academy of Sciences

EPNM-2012: Final Report

XI International Symposium on Explosive Production of New Materials: Science, Technology, Business, and Innovations (EPNM-2012) was held May 2–5, 2012 in Strasbourg, France. It was a continuation of the old tradition born in Czechoslovakia back in the 70s and resumed in Moscow in 2006.

The XI EPNM symposium was organized by Institute of Structural Macrokinetics and Materials Science, Russian Academy of Sciences (ISMAN, Russia) and Institut de Mécanique des Fluides et des Solides, Université de Strasbourg (IMFS, France) under support from Division of Chemistry and New Materials, Russian Academy of Sciences, Council on Combustion and Explosion at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and French Association for Composite Materials (AMAC).

Numerous scientific ties of Prof. Yu.A. Gordopolov (director ISMAN) and managerial abilities of Prof. S.A. Patlazhan (Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Moscow) made it possible to hold the Symposium in one of most beautiful European cities, at the camp of l’Université de Strasbourg.

Rich experience assimilated in organizing previous Symposia — EPNM-2006 in Moscow, Russia; EPNM-2008 in Lisse, the Netherlands, and EPNM-2010 in Bechchi, Montenegro — helped the Organizing Committee to successfully coordinate the efforts of an international team that was engaged in organizational activities.

The organizers are deeply grateful to our sponsors whose donations afforded to support the trip to Strasbourg for a group of younger researchers from Russia and CIS countries. Among our sponsors are Dynamic Materials Corporation (USA), Bitrub International (Russia), EnergoMetall Co. (Russia–Estonia), Explomet Co. (Poland), and Service Center Metal Market, LLC (Russia).

Supposedly, the XI Symposium turned out to be most successful and popular as compared to the previous ones. Above 100 participants came from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czechia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Bulgaria, Georgia, the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, and Algeria. Especially inspiring was the presence of numerous representatives of younger generation.

The Symposium was opened by a welcoming speech by Prof. Yves Rémond, deputy director IMFS and Symposium co-chair. Due to conditions over which he has no control, Prof. Yu.A. Gordopolov, Symposium co-chair, could not come to Strasburg, so that his greeting message to the participants was just read out.

The technical program contained more than 70 oral presentations, the majority being devoted to explosive welding. The most important of them will be mentioned below. Petr Nesvadba (Czechia) reported on explosive welding of tin, a soft metal was thought to be inconvenient for explosive joining. Prof. А.А. Shtertser (Russia) spoke about characteristics of a new low-energy emulsion explosive developed by V.V. Silvestrov (Russia) for releasing internal stresses in exploclad bearings; the invention promises good economic effect. Considerable interest was displayed to the presentations of Prof. L.D. Dobrushin (Ukraine) aimed at aerospace applications and of A.Z. Bogunov (Russia) oriented in implementation at the RUSAL concern.

Traditionally wide-scale reviews were presented by John Banker and Prof. L.B. Pervukhin on behalf of Dynamic Materials Corporation (USA) and Bitrub International Co. (Russia), respectively. Interest was displayed to the work carried out at Explomet Co. (Poland) and EnergoMetall Co. (Russia–Estonia).

As always, much attention was drawn to the international research group headed by Laszlo Kecskes (USA) and Akaki Peikrishvili (Georgia) which studied hot explosive compaction of various composites, including Ni–Al intermetallics widely known for their unique heat resistance.

Prof. A.A. Deribas (Russia) presented a new method for synthesis of diamond powders with a particles size on a micron level. Interesting results were also reported by Cristina Louro (Portugal) on explosive compaction of nanopowdered stainless steel.

New results on explosive compaction and synthesis were reported by Prof. Pengwan Chen and Prof. Jianjun Liu with coworkers (China).

Kevin Keller (Germany) presented new results on synthesis and explosive compaction of AlN-based materials. Thomas Schlothauer (Germany) gave detailed description of a new subterranean shock-wave laboratory at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany. The facility affords experiments with explosives up to 25 kg in weight.

Among younger generation, pointed out was a presentation by Ivan Saikov (Russia).

Interesting suggestions concerning the suppression of explosion noise were made by Erik Carton (Netherlands). The strength problem for explosion cameras was the subject of investigation by the workgroups of L.D. Dobrushin (Ukraine) and of L.B. Pervukhin (Russia).

Besides traditional synthesis by explosion, the present symposium had in program presentations devoted to combustion synthesis by SHS method; O.K. Kamynina et al. (Russia) investigated the preparation of Ti–Al–Ta-based materials by thermal explosion, while V.I. Yukhvid and V.A. Gorskov overviewed the state-of-art in fabrication of layered cermets by SHS metallurgy.

It is also worth mentioning previous EPNM symposia helped to establish numerous international links for close cooperation. As already mentioned, joint research results have been reported by the American and Georgian workers, as well as the Ukrainian and Dutch ones; younger reserachers Ivan Bataev (Novosibirsk University, Russia) and Naoyuki Wada (Kumamoto University, Japan) have become not only colleagues but also good friends.

The Organizing Committee is grateful to A.A. Shtertser, L.D. Dobrushin, and A.Yu. Gordopolov for their highly skilled services as Russian–English interpreters during vivid discussions.

The social events included a welcome party at Modern Art Museum, boat tour, Strasbourg sightseeing, out-of-town excursion, visit to a wine cellar with degustation, and a farewell banquet in Strasburg.

Main contribution to organizing the symposium was provided by the following international work group: Prof. Yves Rémond, co-chair; Prof. Yu.A. Gordopolov, co-chair, group Cellule Congrès de l'Université de Strasbourg, Christine Guibert and Caroline Burgun (Cellule Congrès), A.A. Deribas, L.B. Pervukhin, A.E. Sytschev, Yu.B. Scheck, O.O. Likhanova, I.V. Panin, and O.V. Amelina (all of ISMAN).

The next, XII EPNM Symposium, will be held in two years; where — in Poland, Germany or China – will be determined by International Advisory Committee in the nearest future. But wherever it be, the meeting will certainly attract the attention of the research community active in the field.

Аndrey Deribas
Оlga Likhanova