Two-zone elastic-plastic single shock waves in solids.
By decoupling time and length scales in moving window molecular dynamics shock-wave simulations, a new regime of shock-wave propagation is uncovered characterized by a two-zone elastic-plastic shock-wave structure consisting of a leading elastic front followed by a plastic front, both moving with the same average speed and having a fixed net thickness that can extend to microns. The material in the elastic zone is in a metastable state that supports a pressure that can substantially exceed the critical pressure characteristic of the onset of the well-known split-elastic-plastic, two-wave propagation. The two-zone elastic-plastic wave is a general phenomenon observed in simulations of a broad class of crystalline materials and is within the reach of current experimental techniques.
Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA.
Vasily V
VV
Zhakhovsky
Mikalai M
MM
Budzevich
Nail A
NA
Inogamov
Ivan I
II
Oleynik
Carter T
CT
White