Effect of multiple scattering on the critical density of the energy used to initiate a PETN–aluminum compound by a neodymium laser pulse

The radiative transfer equation and the Mie theory are used in this paper to determine the optical properties of PETN–aluminum nanoparticles compounds. In the case of laser initiation with a wavelength of 1064 nm, the illumination gain at a depth of 100 μm from the surface of the sample varies in the range of 1.070–3.308 for nanoparticles with radii of 20–200 nm. The minimum of the relationship between the density of the energy required to initiate an explosive decomposition and the mass fraction of nanoparticles can be determined by the maximum illumination gain in the sample. The relationships between the critical density of the energy required to initiate PETN–aluminum nanoparticles compounds by the pulses of the first and second harmonics of a neodymium laser and the nanoparticle radius with account for multiple light scattering are determined. It is shown that account for multiple light scattering improves the agreement between theory and experiment.