Christopher Miller joined the LLNL Reaction Dynamics/Hazard Response group in 2020 and his research focuses on quantifying the influence of microstructure on the initiation sensitivity of heterogeneous energetic materials. His modeling focuses on shock and non-shock ignition at the mesoscale using hydrocodes and the HERMES (High Explosive Reaction to MEchanical Stimulus) model. Chris aims to incorporate statistical analyses and machine learning approaches to assist in designing safer explosives.

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 2019

M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 2016

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 2014

Selected Publications:

1. H. Keo Springer, C. M. Miller, M.P. Kroonblawd, S. Bastea, Simulating the Effects of Grain Surface Morphology on Hot Spots in HMX with Surrogate Model Development, Prop., Explos., Pyrotech. 2022.

2. C. Coffelt, D. Olsen, C. Miller, M. Zhou. Effect of void positioning on the detonation sensitivity of a heterogeneous energetic material, Journal of Applied Physics, 131(6), 065101. (2022)

3. Y. Wei, C. Miller, D. Olsen, M. Zhou, Prediction of Probabilistic Shock Initiation Thresholds of Energetic Materials Through Evolution of Thermal-Mechanical Dissipation and Reactive Heating, ASME. J. Appl. Mech. September 2021; 88(9): 091005.

4. Christopher M. Miller and H. Keo Springer, Probabilistic effects of porosity and chemical kinetics on the shock initiation of an octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) based explosive, Journal of Applied Physics 129, 215104 (2021)

5. C. Miller, D. Olsen, Y. Wei, M. Zhou. Three-dimensional microstructure-explicit and void-explicit mesoscale simulations of detonation of HMX at millimeter sample size scale, Journal of Applied Physics 127, 125105 (2020)

6. Y. Wei, D. H. Olsen, C. M. Miller, K. B. Wagner, A. Keyhani, N. Thadhani, M. Zhou, Computational Design of Three-Dimensional Multi-Constituent Material Microstructure Sets with Prescribed Statistical Constituent and Geometric Attributes. Multiscale Sci. Eng. 2, 7–19 (2020).

7. C. Miller, D. Kittell, C. Yarrington, M. Zhou., Prediction of probabilistic pop plot via millimeter-scale microstructure-explicit and void-explicit simulations. Prop., Explos., Pyrotech. 2020, 45, 254.

8. C. Miller, S. Kim; Y. Horie, M. Zhou, Ignition thresholds of aluminized HMX-based polymer-bonded explosives. AIP Advances, 2019. 9(4): p. 045103.

9. U. Roy, S. Kim, C. Miller, Y. Horie, M. Zhou, Computational study of ignition behavior and hotspot dynamics of a potential class of aluminized explosives. Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 2018. 26(8): p. 085004.

10. S. Kim, C. Miller, Y Horie; C. Molek, E. Welle, M. Zhou, Computational prediction of probabilistic ignition threshold of pressed granular octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,2,3,5-tetrazocine (HMX) under shock loading. Journal of Applied Physics, 2016. 120(11): p. 115902.

For a full list, see: Google Scholar | Scopus | ORCID

• DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellow