Attenuation of shock waves in copper and stainless steel

Abstract

By using shock pins, data were gathered on the trajectories of shock waves in stainless steel (SS-304L) and oxygen-free-high-conductivity copper (OFHC-Cu). Shock pressures were generated in these materials by impacting the appropriate target with thin (approx.1.5 mm) flying plates. The flying plates in these experiments were accelerated to high velocities (approx.4 km/s) by high explosives. Six experiments were conducted, three using SS-304L as the target material and three experiments using OFHC-Cu as the target material. Peak shock pressures generated in the steel experiments were approximately 109, 130, and 147 GPa and in the copper experiments, the peak shock pressures were approximately 111, 132, and 143 GPa. In each experiment, an attenuation of the shock wave by a following release wave was clearly observed. An extensive effort using two characteristic codes (described in this work) to theoretically calculate the attenuation of the shock waves was made. The efficacy of several different constitutive equations to successfully model the experiments was studied by comparing the calculated shock trajectories to the experimental data. Based on such comparisons, the conclusion can be drawn that OFHC-Cu enters a melt phase at about 130 GPa on the principal Hugoniot. There was no sign of phase changes in the stainless-steel experiments. In order to match the observed attenuation of the shock waves in the SS-304L experiments, it was necessary to include strength effects in the calculations. It was found that the values for the parameters in the strength equations were dependent on the equation of state used in the modeling of the experiments. 66 refs., 194 figs., 77 tabs.