Blast waves have been produced in solid target by irradiation with short-pulse high-intensity lasers. The mechanism of production relies on energy deposition from the hot electrons produced by laser–matter interaction, producing a steep temperature gradient inside the target. Hot electrons also produce preheating of the material ahead of the blast wave and expansion of the target rear side, which results in a complex blast wave propagation dynamic. Several diagnostics have been used to characterize the hot electron source, the induced preheating and the velocity of the blast wave. Results are compared to numerical simulations. These show how blast wave pressure is initially very large (more than 100 Mbar), but it decreases very rapidly during propagation.

Arc-jet facilities have been the norm for ablation experiments used to calibrate computational models to date. However, the arc jet has a few major limitations and challenges, including non-uniform enthalpy distribution, non-equilibrium state, change of surface quality during testing and the extent of oxidation, to name but a few. A novel plasma technique for preheating axisymmetric heatshield samples in hypersonic impulse facilities is presented herein. The major aim of this innovative work is to help reduce the large variations of ablation rate predictions, space vehicle materials and missile design/testing, obtain strongly coupled hypersonic boundary layers and achieve lower cost of aerothermodynamics experiments. This present work remains one of the most highly anticipated solutions to maximise payload success and replicate high surface temperatures identical to those experienced by real flight vehicles. This work makes a useful contribution to re-entry studies under conditions that replicate the characteristics of re-entry flights. Future applications for the technique are expected to be found in hypersonic impulse facilities that can simulate the true flow energy under re-entry conditions.

Dating lime mortar samples using the radiocarbon (14C) method can be difficult. This is because the contamination is similar to the primary dating material (CaCO3) and consequently difficult to remove. Mortar can also have late-in-formation pyrogenic carbonate from interactions with the environment after the initial hardening phase, such as recrystallization, fire damage or delayed hardening. When 14C dating a system of primary dating material, contamination and late-in-formation pyrogenic carbonate, one approach is multi-fraction dating with conclusiveness criteria. If a sample has sufficient contamination or late-in-formation pyrogenic carbonate, the criteria evaluate the result inconclusive. To improve inconclusive results from such samples, this study investigates sample preparation by thermal decomposition. Here samples that were inconclusively dated by the authors’ traditional method, sequential dissolution with 85% phosphoric acid, are investigated further. This study finds that CO2 thermally decomposed at low temperatures contains some late-in-formation pyrogenic carbonate. By rejecting CO2 decomposed at low temperatures, Kastelholm castle and Kimito church in Finland are conclusively and accurately dated. Furthermore, a preheating method removes some late-in-formation carbonate, but not enough for a conclusive result. Finally, thermal decomposition finds difficulty in discerning binder carbonate from limestone and marble contamination.

In this study, we examined the sensitivity of embossed pattern depth to preheat supply and cooling and investigated how the pattern type and density affect the embossed depth. The main factors that affect embossed pattern qualities of roll-to-roll hot embossing, such as roller temperature, roller speed, and applied force, were determined using the response surface methodology. Eight conditions were then added to determine the time-dependent effects of heat transfer with custom-designed preheating and cooling systems. An extended preheat time for the polymethylmethacrylate substrate contributed to the significant change in the embossed depth, whereas the substrate-cooling did not exhibit a clear increasing or decreasing trend. Larger embossed depths were achieved in the horizontal patterns with lower density than in the vertical patterns, and the lower pattern densities showed greater embossed depths in most embossing conditions. We expect that this result will help to understand the effects of the pre- and posttreatment of roll-to-roll hot embossing by employing time duration factors of heat transfer, depending on the mold pattern type and density.

We present one-dimensional simulations performed using the multi group radiation hydro code MULTI with the goal of analyzing the target preheating effect under conditions similar to those of recent experiments aimed at studying the Equation of State (EOS) of various materials. In such experiments, aluminum is often used as reference material; therefore its behavior under strong shock compression and high-intensity laser irradiation (1013–1014 W/cm2) should be studied in detail. Our results reveal that at high laser irradiance, the laser energy available to induce shock pressure is reduced due to high X-rays generation. Simultaneously X-rays preheat the bulk of the reference material causing significant heating prior to shock propagation. Such effects induce deviations in shock propagation with respect to cold aluminum.