Experimental Investigation of Wave and Fracture Phenomena in Impacted Ceramics

Abstract

Four types of glass which differ in their chemical composition, hardness and material density and tiles of SiC, TiB2, and Al2O3 were impacted edge-on with blunt steel projectiles at striking velocities between 20 m/s and 1000 m/s. The propagation of shock waves, of primary and secondary cracks and crack systems and the growing of crack systems from nucleated centers were visualized by means of a Cranz-Schardin high-speed camera within the first twenty microseconds, before the projectile penetrated the target more than a few millimeters. The concept of damage velocity was introduced to describe the different damage processes quantitatively. All four types of glass reveal a similar behavior. The damage velocity equals terminal crack velocity at low loadings. Other than in glass, in the ceramics different types of cracks are generated and different fracture velocities were observed at one impact velocity of continuously growing cracks, including the secondary cracks with sharp edges, fuzzy crack traces and crack fronts. In each of the ceramics the damage velocity increases with increasing striking velocity and approaches the longitudinal wave velocity at high loadings. A terminal crack velocity was found for one type of fracture in SiC. Ceramographical investigations of TiB2 fragments have shown that cracks within large grains as well as intercrystalline cracks are generated by coalescence of voids.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA286589

Entities

People

  • E. Strabburger
  • H. Senf

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cameras
  • Crack Propagation
  • Crack Tips
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Fungi
  • Geometry
  • Glass
  • Grain Size
  • High Speed Photography
  • Impact Tests
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Mechanics
  • Photographs
  • Photography
  • Stresses
  • Wave Propagation

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Materials Science (Mechanical Engineering).
  • ballistics.