Fire and Ice: Thermoluminescent Temperature Sensing in High-Explosive Detonations and Optical Characterization Methods for Glacier Ice Boreholes

Abstract

The environment around a detonating high explosive is incredibly energetic and dynamic, generating shock waves, turbulent mixing, chemical reactions, and temperature excursions of thousands of Kelvin. Probing this violent but short-lived phenomena requires durable sensors with fast response times. By contrast, the glacier ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland change on geologic time scales; the accumulation and compression of snow into ice preserves samples of atmospheric gas, dust, and volcanic ash, while the crystal orientations of the ice reflect its conditions and movement over hundreds of thousands of years. Here, difficulty of characterization stems primarily from the location, scale, and depth of the ice sheet. This work describes new sensing technologies for both of these environments. Microparticles of thermoluminescent materials are proposed as high-survivability, bulk-deployable temperature sensors for applications such as assessing bioagent inactivation. A technique to reconstruct thermal history from subsequent thermoluminescence observations is described. MEMS devices were designed and fabricated to assist in non-detonation testing: large-area electrostatic membrane actuators were used to apply mechanical stress to thermoluminescent Y₂O₃:Tb thin film, and microheaters impose rapid temperature excursions upon particles of Mg₂SiO₄:Tb,Co to demonstrate predictable thermoluminescent response. Closed- and open-chamber explosive detonation tests using dosimetric LiF:Mg,Ti and two experimental thermometry materials were performed to test survivability and attempt thermal event reconstruction. Two borehole logging devices are described for optical characterization of glacier ice. For detecting and recording layers of volcanic ash in glacier ice, we developed a lightweight, compact probe which uses optical fibers and purely passive downhole components to detect single-scattered long-wavelength light. To characterize ice fabric orientation, we propose a technique which uses reflection measurements from a small, fixed set of geometries. The design and construction of a borehole logger implementing these techniques is described, and its testing discussed.