Strength properties and structure of a submicrocrystalline Al–Mg–Mn alloy under shock compression

The results of studying the strength of a submicrocrystalline aluminum A5083 alloy (chemical composition was 4.4Mg–0.6Mn–0.11Si–0.23Fe–0.03Cr–0.02Cu–0.06Ti wt % and Al base) under shockwave compression are presented. The submicrocrystalline structure of the alloy was produced in the process of dynamic channel-angular pressing at a strain rate of 104 s–1. The average size of crystallites in the alloy was 180–460 nm. Hugoniot elastic limit σHEL, dynamic yield stress σy, and the spall strength σSP of the submicrocrystalline alloy were determined based on the free-surface velocity profiles of samples during shock compression. It has been established that upon shock compression, the σHEL and σy of the submicrocrystalline alloy are higher than those of the coarse-grained alloy and σsp does not depend on the grain size. The maximum value of σHEL reached for the submicrocrystalline alloy is 0.66 GPa, which is greater than that in the coarse-crystalline alloy by 78%. The dynamic yield stress is σy = 0.31 GPa, which is higher than that of the coarse-crystalline alloy by 63%. The spall strength is σsp = 1.49 GPa. The evolution of the submicrocrystalline structure of the alloy during shock compression was studied. It has been established that a mixed nonequilibrium grain-subgrain structure with a fragment size of about 400 nm is retained after shock compression, and the dislocation density and the hardness of the alloy are increased

Interconnection of structural characteristics with dynamic properties of A5083 aluminum alloy

In this work, the resistance of high-strain rate deformation and fracture during shock-wave compression of aluminum alloy A5083 previously obtained in two structural states by torsion under high pressure or dynamic pressing is studied. It is shown by electron microscopy that sub-microcrystalline structures differ in the size of grain–subgrains, dislocation density, and ratio of low-angle and high-angle boundaries. It is established that, at the same grain size, the sub-microcrystalline alloy exhibits higher dynamic properties, and after dynamic pressing, it has higher spall strength

New data on the kinetics and governing factors of the spall fracture of metals

This paper presents two examples of significant departures from usual trends of varying the resistance to spall fracture (spall strength) with changing loading history, load duration and peak shock stress. In experiments with vanadium single crystals we observed an important decrease of spall strength when increasing the shock stress. This was interpreted in terms of disruption of the matter homogeneity as a result of its twinning at shock compression. In experiments with 12Kh18N10T austenitic stainless steel we observed a sharp increase of recorded spall strength value when short load pulses of a triangular profile were replaced by shock pulses of long duration having a trapezoidal shape. This anomaly is associated with formation of the deformation-induced martensitic phase

Peculiarities of evolutions of elastic-plastic shock compression waves in different materials

In the paper, we discuss such unexpected features in the wave evolution in solids as strongly nonlinear uniaxial elastic compression in a picosecond time range, a departure from self-similar development of the wave process which is accompanied with apparent sub-sonic wave propagation, changes of shape of elastic precursor wave as a result of variations in the material structure and the temperature, unexpected peculiarities of reflection of elastic-plastic waves from free surface

Spall fracture and twinning in laser shock-loaded single-crystal magnesium

As a major failure process in materials subjected to dynamic loading, spall fracture is one of the most widely studied issues in shock physics. To investigate its dependence on the microstructure, including both initial and shock-induced features, laser shock experiments were performed on single crystal magnesium. Shock loading was applied in directions parallel and perpendicular to the c-axis of the crystals. Both the spall strength and the fracture surface morphology are found to depend on the direction of the shock application with respect to crystal orientations. The results complement data obtained previously over ranges of lower strain rates. A detailed analysis of the residual microstructure and crack patterns in the recovered samples shows strong correlations between damage localization and twins, both pre-existing and shock-induced. Thus, cracks match specific twinning directions, which is discussed on the basis of deformation mechanisms reported under quasi-static loading conditions, either prismatic slip or twinning depending on local orientations

Shock-induced structures in copper

Shock loading of M3 copper within strain rate range of 5·10 6-5,7·10 6 s -1 reveals a nucleation of structural objects of 5-30 µm in diameter, which present the three dimensional frameworks composed from shear bands of 50-200 nm spacing. The structures are shown to be nucleated by means of interference of longitudinal and periphery release waves. Transition of the material into structure unstable state responsible for the shear banding happens when rate of change of the velocity variance at the mesoscale becomes higher than the rate of change of the mean particle velocity. The sites of nucleation of 3D-structures are speculated to be the staking faults generated under action of chaotic velocity pulsations relevant to dynamic deformation. The physical model for formation of 3D-structures takes into account the intersection of the partial dislocations and Lomer - Cottrell barriers

Quasi-static and shock-wave loading of ultrafine-grained aluminum: effect of microstructural characteristics

The interrelation between microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties under quasi-static and shock-wave (dynamic) loading was investigated in ultrafine-grained aluminum processed by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) for 4, 7, 10 and 14 cycles. The microstructural parameters such as the size of the elements of grain–subgrain structure, grain size and fraction of high-angle grain boundaries were obtained using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD). Indentation and tensile tests at the strain rate of 1 × 10−4 s−1 were applied as the quasi-static loading, the impact by aluminum flyer-plates with the impact velocity of 620 ± 30 m s−1 was the shock-wave loading. The strain rate in the rarefaction wave before spall fracture was 2 × 105–7 × 105 s−1 in the latter case. It is shown that the dislocation substructures and low-angle subboundaries significantly affect the strength properties under quasi-static conditions, while the grain size (the areas bounded by only high-angle boundaries) and fraction of high-angle grain boundaries mainly define the dynamic strength properties. The different influence of the microstructural characteristics on the quasi-static and dynamic mechanical properties is related to the easier dislocation cross-slip under high strain rates

Effect of small preliminary deformation on the evolution of elastoplastic waves of shock compression in annealed VT1-0 titanium

The evolution of an elastoplastic waves of shock compression in VT1-0 titanium in the as-annealed state and after preliminary compression is measured. A preliminary strain of 0.6% and the related increase in the dislocation density are found to change the deformation kinetics radically and to decrease the Hugoniot elastic limit. An increase in the preliminary strain from 0.6% to 5.2% only weakly changes the Hugoniot elastic limit and the compression rate in the plastic shock wave. The measurement results are used to plot the strain rate versus the stress at the initial stage of high-rate deformation, and the experimental results are interpreted in terms of dislocation dynamics