On the influence of loading profile upon the tensile failure of stainless steel

A material placed in direct contact with a high explosive experiences a Taylor wave (triangular-shaped) shock loading profile. While a large number of studies have probed the structure, properties, and tensile response of materials subjected to square-topped shock loading pulses histories, few studies have systematically quantified the influence of shock-wave profile shape on material response. Samples of 316L stainless steel were shock loaded to peak stresses of 6.6, 10.2, and 14.5 GPa to examine the influence of square-topped and triangular (Taylor wave)-shaped pulse loading on the dynamic tensile behavior (spallation). The 316L SS samples were loaded with a square-topped pulse to each peak shock stress, using a pulse duration of 0.9 μs. They displayed increasing incipient spallation damage with increasing peak stress. Samples loaded to the peak shock stresses of 6.6 and 10.2 GPa with a Taylor-wave loading pulse (which immediately unloads the sample after the peak Hugoniot stress is achieved) exhibited no damage. Only the 14.5 GPa Taylor pulse shocked sample exhibited both a pull-back signal and incipient damage following tensile loading. The damage evolution in the square-topped shocked samples was found to be a mixture of void and strain localization damage, the void fraction increasing with peak shock amplitude. With the Taylor-wave loading profile of amplitude 14.5 GPa, a high incidence of shear localization and low incidence of void formation was observed. Detailed analysis of the damage evolution as a function of shock pulse shape revealed that a nominally equivalent level of incipient damage was obtained using a Taylor-wave or square-topped loading pulse when a similar rear sample surface stress-time total impulse was applied. In order to induce equivalent damage with the two pulse shapes, the impulse applied needed to be nominally matched. For this to occur, the Taylor-wave profile required twice the amplitude of the squar- e one and the durations of each pulse needed to be appropriately scaled. Detailed metallographic, microtextural, and void shape and size analyses of the damage evolution are presented as a function of the inferred loading pulse shape and the peak Hugoniot stress.