The dynamic response of structured materials, such as regular lattices, is nontrivial partly due to the interaction of mechanical waves throughout the structure and free surfaces as the material is dynamically compressed. The existence of an elastic precursor wave in additively manufactured lattices was recently shown to match theoretical predictions and simulation results. Following up on this work, we have investigated the behavior of the elastic precursor with propagation distance, impact speed, and impact material. Through a series of gas gun experiments coupled to X-ray phase contrast imaging measurements and complementary simulations, the elastic precursor wavespeed appears to be nearly independent of impact speed and impact material. We observed evidence for the sustained elastic wave propagation through many unit cells at four significantly different impact conditions. We compared these results with direct numerical simulations of the experiments and found good agreement.

A TEM study of pure tantalum and tantalum-tungsten alloys explosively shocked at a peak pressure of 30 GPa (strain rate: ∼1 x 104 sec-1) is presented. While no ω (hexagonal) phase was found in shock-recovered pure Ta and Ta-5W that contain mainly a low-energy cellular dislocation structure, shock-induced ω phase was found to form in Ta-10W that contains evenly distributed dislocations with a stored dislocation density higher than 1 x 1012 cm-2. The TEM results clearly reveal that shock-induced α (bcc) → ω (hexagonal) shear transformation occurs when dynamic recovery reactions which lead the formation low-energy cellular dislocation structure become largely suppressed in Ta-10W shocked under dynamic (i.e., high strain-rate and high-pressure) conditions. A novel dislocation-based mechanism is proposed to rationalize the transition of dislocation glide to twinning and/or shear transformation in shock-deformed tantalum. Twinning and/or shear transformation take place as an alternative deformation mechanism to accommodate high-strain-rate straining when the shear stress required for dislocation multiplication exceeds the threshold shear stresses for twinning and/or shear transformation.

The dynamic evolution and interaction of defects under the conditions of shock loading in nanocrystalline Al with an average grain size of 20 nm is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations for an impact velocity of 1 km/s. Four stages of defect evolution are identified during shock deformation and failure that correspond to the initial shock compression (I), the propagation of the compression wave (II), the propagation and interaction of the reflected tensile waves (III), and the nucleation, growth, and coalescence of voids (IV). The results suggest that the spall strength of the nanocrystalline Al system is attributed to a high density of Shockley partials and a slightly lower density of twinning partials (twins) in the material experiencing the peak tensile pressures.

Shock-induced detonation simulation provides critical information about high explosive (HE) materials including sensitivity, detonation velocity and reaction pathways. Here, we report a reactive force-field molecular dynamics simulation study of shock-induced decomposition of 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) crystal. A flyer acts as mechanical stimuli to induce shock in the system, which initiates chemical reactions. Reaction pathway study reveals that the detonation process of TATB is distinct from those in Octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,4,7-terazocine (HMX) and 1,3,5-Trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (RDX). Unlike the latter HE materials, N2 production in TATB occurs via three different intermolecular reaction pathways. Being an oxygen deficient HE material, a large carbon rich aggregate remains after the reaction.

Tungsten carbide (WC) particle–reinforced iron matrix surface composites with different content of Cr were fabricated using vacuum evaporative pattern casting technique. It was found that the morphology of carbides changed from continuous net-shape to isolated block-shape patterns. The amount of carbides increase with the increasing Cr content in the matrices. Composites with different Cr content show better abrasive wear resistance than those without Cr. With the increase of Cr content in the matrices, the three-body abrasive wear resistance of the composites increased, while the impact abrasive wear resistance of the composites increased under 1 J impact load, but first increased and then decreased under 3 J impact load. The influences of the addition of Cr in the matrices on the abrasive wear resistance were the synergistic effects of two protecting effects and two supporting effects. The results might provide significant references for the design and practical application of WC particle–reinforced iron matrix surface composites.

In this paper, the effect of shock compression on the synthesis of a Bi-based oxide superconductor was investigated. Bi1.85-Pb0.35-Sr1.90-Ca2.05-Cu3.05-Ox calcined powder was shock-compacted around 20 GPa and 30 GPa, and divided specimens were annealed at 845 °C for 1, 6 and 48 hours. The specimens were evaluated by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope.

Heterogeneities at the meso-scale strongly influence the shock compression response of composite materials. Laminated geometries with full density and intimate particle contacts provide a unique system to investigate the influence of microstructure on a propagating shock wave. Computational analysis is used to understand the effects of layer orientation and bilayer spacing on the shock compression response of cold-rolled Ni/ Al multilayers. Real, heterogeneous microstructures, obtained from optical micrographs, are incorporated into the Eulerian, finite volume code CTH. The results show a marked difference in the dissipation and dispersion of the shock wave as the underlying microstructure varies.

Small scale explosively driven fragmentation experiments have been performed on Aluminum (Al)-Tungsten (W) granular composite rings processed using cold isostatic compression of Al and W powders with a particle size of 4-30 microns. Fragments collected from the experiments had a maximum size of the order of a few hundred micrometers. This is a dramatic reduction in the fragment size when compared to the 1-10 mm typical for a homogeneous material such as solid aluminum under similar loading conditions. Numerical simulations of the experiment were performed to elucidate the mechanisms of fragmentation that were responsible for this shift in fragmentation size scales. Simulations were performed with a significantly stronger explosive driver to examine how the mechanisms of fragmentation change when the detonation pressure increases.

This paper investigates the underlying physics governing the explosion driven expansion and fragmentation of spherical beds packed of partially saturated sand with varying mass fractions of interstitial oil. The breakup onset of the sand shells is characterized by the formation of fragments/agglomerates consisting of a large number of constituent grains, which in later time present themselves as prolific and regular jetting streams. Test data show a postponed jetting formation when sand shells are subject to the explosion with a higher detonation velocity, meanwhile a reduced jet mass scale is observed. A kinetic energy driven breakup model is proposed based on the instability criterion involving the opposing forces of stabilizing inertial pressures and destabilizing viscous resistance. This analytical model is capable of predicting the onset of granular material fragmentation as well as the characteristic fragment size, which is consistent with the experimental results.

Two fundamental processes associated with shock compression of energetic materials (EM) are initiation and ignition. Initiation occurs just behind a shock front and ignition occurs anywhere from a few nanoseconds to hundreds of nanoseconds later. Experiments are described that probe the fundamental mechanisms of these processes on relevant length and time scales: picosecond vibrational spectroscopy of nanometer thick layers of energetic materials (EM) with laser-driven shock waves, and nanosecond emission spectroscopy of micrometer thick layers of EM using laser-driven flyer plates.

Dynamic tensile strength of polyurea is measured at an ultrahigh strain rate of 1.67 × 107 s−1 by generating spall failures inside thick polyurea coatings bonded to steel plates using laser-generated stress waves of several nanoseconds in duration. Specifically, thick polyurea films were cast on a steel plate whose backside was provided with water glass–covered Al film. The Al film was melted by focusing a high-energy Nd:YAG laser pulse over 3-mm-diameter area. Exfoliation of the Al generated a compressive stress wave toward the polyurea coating, which turned tensile upon reflection from the free surface. At a threshold laser energy, the amplitude of the returning tensile stress wave exceeded the dynamic tensile strength of polyurea. The stress wave profile inside the steel plate was interferometrically recorded at the threshold laser fluence and was used in a wave mechanics simulation to calculate the peak tensile stress. The polyurea was modeled as a viscoelastic solid.

Measuring residual-stresses at the micron scale in glassy materials imposes experimental challenges, particularly when using diffraction, or other conventional laboratory methods, e.g., optical non-contact methods, grid methods, etc. In this short paper, a technique for mapping residual-stress profiles in amorphous materials with high spatial definition is used to measure residual-stresses in a laser-peened and fatigued bulk-metallic glass - Vit-105. The method involves local deposition of nano Pt dots patterns on the mapped region of the specimen and milling of a series of micro-slots of size 15 × 2 × 0.4 μm3 using the focused ion beam of a dual beam Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope / Focused Ion Gun (FEGSEM/FIB) instrument. The deformation fields in the vicinity of slots are reconstructed by the digital image correlation analyses (DICA) of FEGSEM images recorded during milling. The residual-stresses are inferred by fitting a reference displacement field obtained from finite-element analyses (FEA) with the recorded displacement field. In this way, residual-stress distributions have been characterized as a function of the distance from the laser-peened surface to a depth of 1,200 microns with a spatial resolution of 30 μm. The influence of fatigue loading on the compressive residual-stresses spatial distribution is studied and discussed. It was found that the fatigue loading significantly changes the compressive residual-stress spatial distribution in the laser-peened layer.

Results are presented on the shock response of a zirconium-based bulk metallic glass (BMG), Zr41.25Ti13.75Ni10Cu12.5Be22.5, subjected to planar impact loading. An 82.5-mm bore single-stage gas-gun facility at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, was used to conduct the shock experiments. The particle velocity profiles, measured at the back (free) surface of the target plate by using the velocity interferometer system for any reflector (VISAR), were analyzed to (i) better understand the structure of shock waves in BMG subjected to planar shock compression, (ii) estimate residual spall strength of the BMG after different levels of shock compression, and (iii) obtain the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) of the material. The spall strength was found to decrease moderately with increasing levels of the applied normal impact stress. The spall strength at a shock-induced stress of 4.4 GPa was 3.5 GPa while the spall strengths at shock-induced stresses of 5.1, 6.0, and 7.0 GPa were 2.72, 2.35, and 2.33 GPa, respectively. The HEL was estimated to be 6.15 GPa.

A spatially resolved diffraction method with a sub micrometer-diameter beam and 3D differential aperture technique together with MD simulations, SEM and OIM analysis are applied to understand the arrangements of voids, geometrically necessary dislocations and strain gradient distribution in samples of Al (123) single crystal shocked to incipient spallation fracture. We describe how geometrically necessary dislocations and effective strain gradient alter white beam Laue patterns of the shocked materials. We show how to quantitatively determine the orientation and density of geometrically necessary dislocations in the shock recovered Al samples being initially oriented for single slip.

A kinetics model based on mass and heat transport has been developed for Ti3SiC2 formation via shock-activated reaction synthesis of powder precursors. The model allows prediction of heat treatment conditions under which an otherwise steady-state reaction is taken over by a “run-away” combustion-type reaction during post-shock reaction synthesis of Ti3SiC2. Shock compression of Ti, SiC, and graphite precursors generates a densely packed highly activated state of reactants, which lowers the activation energy and results in an increased rate of formation of Ti3SiC2 at a lower temperature and in shorter times. The predictive model correlated with experimental results of fraction reacted as a function of time at heat-treatment temperatures of 1400 and 1600 °C illustrates an increased rate of reaction due to lowering activation energy, which also results in the reaction at 1600 °C being taken over by a “run-away” combustion-type reaction, as the rate of heat release due to reaction exceeds the rate of heat dissipation through the compact. Correlation of the model with experimental results illustrates that the predictive model can be used to optimize reaction synthesis conditions in shock-densified compacts of Ti3SiC2-forming powder precursors, to better understand the processes leading to a steady-state reaction being taken over by the combustion mode.

Explosive shock compaction was used to consolidate powders obtained from melt-spun Pr2Fe14B/α–Fe nanocomposite ribbons, to produce fully dense cylindrical compacts of 17–41-mm diameter and 120-mm length. Characterization of the compacts revealed refinement of the nanocomposite structure, with approximately 15 nm uniformly sized grains. The compact produced at a shock pressure of approximately 1 GPa maintained a high coercivity, and its remanent magnetization and maximum energy product were measured to be 0.98 T and 142 kJ/m3, respectively. The compact produced at 4–7 GPa showed a decrease in magnetic properties while that made at 12 GPa showed a magnetic softening behavior. However, in both of these cases, a smooth hysteresis loop implying exchange coupling and a coercivity of 533 kA/m were fully recovered after heat treatment. The results illustrate that the explosive compaction followed by post-shock heat treatment can be used to fabricate exchange-coupled nanocomposite bulk magnets with optimized magnetic properties.

The absence of a plastic phase in boron carbide and its failure at shock impact velocities just above the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) has been a puzzle for a long time. In the present work, using self-consistent field density functional simulations we are able to account for many experimental observations by noticing that several boron carbide polytypes [(B11C)C2B, (B12)C3, etc …] coexist without significant lattice distortions. Our analysis also indicates that above a threshold pressure all the candidate microstructures are less stable than a phase involving segregated boron (B12) and amorphous carbon (a-C) but the energetic barrier between boron carbide and B12 + 3C, is by far lower for the B12(CCC) microstructure, requiring the lowest atomic displacement for a transformation B4C→3B+a-C, occurring at pressures of 6 GPa = P(HEL). For such a configuration, segregation of free carbon occurs in layers orthogonal to the (113) lattice directions, in excellent agreement with recent transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis

Ultra-fast reactions initiated within or immediately behind the shock front in powder mixtures are of importance in the synthesis of high-pressure phases and next-generation energetic materials. Reactions in nickel and aluminum powder mixtures and the establishment of a reaction threshold have been the source of many studies over the last 20 years. Prior work has suggested that the criterion for reaction is most probably mechanochemical in nature, in which shock loading environment plays a larger role than absolute shock energy input. The mechanisms responsible for intimate mixing of fresh reactants are however still unclear. In this work we are investigating the role of particle size and morphology on the loading, mixing, and their subsequent shock-induced reaction behavior, by performing shock-compressibility experiments on equi-volumetric mixtures of nickel and aluminum powders, with variations in nickel particle size (micron and nano-scale) and shape (spherical and flake). Determination of shock states is accomplished through time-resolved in situ PVDF gauge measurements of input shock stress and shock propagation speed obtained from transit time through the thickness of powder mixture. The reaction product shock-compressibility state is also being calculated based on constant pressure approximations to allow correlation with measured states for inference of the occurrence of shock-induced chemical reactions. The results of this study suggest that powder configuration in the nickel-aluminum system can be modified to encourage or discourage reaction.

This research focuses on shock wave propagation in <100>, <110>, and <111> oriented single crystalline Al, <0001> oriented single crystalline Fe2O3, and an interface between the {100} surface of Al and the {0001} surface of Fe2O3. An interatomic potential is developed to describe interatomic interactions in the Fe+Al+Fe2O3+Al2O3 material system. The potential is capable of describing the behaviors of Fe, Al, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 as well as of composites consisting of any combination of these components. The analyses in single crystals focus on the relationships between the shock wave velocity (US) and the particle velocity (UP) as a function of single crystalline orientation. Calculations also focus on the formation and propagation of defects. The analyses reveal that the US-UP relationship as well as the type and the extent of deformation strongly depend on the crystallographic orientation. The interfacial shock wave propagation analyses focus on the change in atomic structure near the interface as a function of UP. Calculations show that there is a threshold UP value above which the atomic structure on both sides of the interface undergoes significant changes which are accompanies by enhanced increase in temperature and pressure relative to what is seen in both phases when they are deformed alone. This observation suggests a possibility that this threshold may represent the onset of a shock-induced reactive structural change.

When lead-free solder alloys mix with lead-free component and board metallizations during reflow soldering, the solder interconnections become multicomponent alloy systems whose microstructures cannot be predicted on the basis of the SnPb metallurgy. To better understand the influences of these microstructures on the reliability of lead-free electronics assemblies, SnAgCu-bumped components were reflow-soldered with near-eutectic SnAgCu solder pastes on Ni(P)|m.Au- and organic solderability preservative (OSP)-coated printed wiring boards and tested under cyclic thermal shock loading conditions. The reliability performance under thermomechanical loading was found to be controlled by the kinetics of recrystallization. Because ductile fracturing of the as-soldered tin-rich colonies would require a great amount of plastic work, the formation of continuous network of grain boundaries by recrystallization is needed for cracks to nucleate and propagate intergranularly through the solder interconnections. Detailed microstructural observations revealed that cracks nucleate and grow along the grain boundaries especially between the recrystallized part and the non-recrystallized part of the interconnections. The thermal cycling test data were analyzed statistically by combining the Weibull statistics and the analysis of variance. The interconnections on Ni(P)|m.Au were found out to be more reliable than those on Cu|m.OSP. This is due to the extensive dissolution of Cu conductor, in the case of the Cu|m.OSP assemblies, into molten solder that makes the microstructure to differ noticeably from that of the Ni(P)|m.Au interconnections. Because of large primary Cu6Sn5 particles, the Cu-enriched interconnections enhance the onset of recrystallization, and cracking of the interconnections is therefore faster. The solder paste composition had no statistically significant effect on the reliability performance.