Chemistry and phase transitions from hypervelocity impacts

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study hypervelocity impacts of an ultrathin flyer plate with a semi‐infinite two‐dimensional model diatomic molecular solid. We show that these hypervelocity impacts can produce a dissociative phase transition from a molecular to a close‐packed solid in the target material. We also show that hypervelocity impacts of ultrathin plates can produce extensive chemical reactions leading to a detonation accompanied by a phase transition in an energetic version of the model. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.