6 research outputs found
High-velocity impact fragmentation of brittle, granular aluminum spheres
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2013.05.076We present ballistic and fragmentation data for brittle, granular aluminum spheres following high-
velocity impact (0.5-2.0 km
/
s) on thin steel plates. These spheres, formed from isostatically pressed alu-
minum powder, are representative of a wide variety of metallic reactive materials currently being studied.
Simple analytic theories are introduced which provide a reasonable description of the residual velocity and
hole diameter following impact. With increasing velocity there is an intriguing transition to a power-law
fragment distribution, which we have interpreted as arising from extensive microbranching of fast-running
cracks. The key equations of an analytic theory describing the fragment distributions are also presented