DYNAMIC DAMAGE EVOLUTION IN ALUMINUM AS A MODEL SYSTEM FOR UNDERSTANDING FCC MATERIALS IN EXTREME CONDITIONS

Thesis (Ph.D.), School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State UniversityMaterials play a key role in many emerging technologies. Future technologies in the energy and defense sectors will place huge demands on material performance with respect to stress, strain, temperature, and pressure. These applications require that the response of materials on dynamic (microsecond) time scales be predictable and controllable. Hence, the goal of this research project was to study the extreme environment of shock loaded damage evolution in aluminum as a model system for understanding dynamic response of FCC metals in these environments. Phase one utilized plate impact experiments to study the influence of spatial effects (in the form of microstructural defect distributions) on the dynamic damage evolution process. Samples were soft recovered for shot analysis and comparison to real time laser velocimetry. Results revealed that the length scale of defects controls the failure mechanisms of the microstructure; suggesting defect density and the spatial distribution of defects are critical factors in the deformation process in extreme environments. Phase two studied the influence of kinetic effects (in the form of dynamic tensile loading rate) to reveal time dependence on the dynamic deformation process. Results concluded damage nucleation and growth rates are highly time dependent and can be overdriven as higher tensile loading rates result in extremely short time durations. It was shown that laser velocimetry provides an adequate means for understanding the dynamic damage evolution process when soft recovery of the sample is unavailable. This was shown by comparing laser velocimetry results with data obtained from optical analysis on recovered specimens. The methodology here provides a means to systematically study materials of interest in extreme conditions and provides a pathway for obtaining the relevant physics needed for model development leading to a predictive capability.School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State Universit