Finely striped structure at the edges of localized deformation bands

Under conditions of high-rate loading, plastic strain localization is a result of tension in the zone of interference of unloading waves rather than of thermal softening. At stresses close to the dynamic strength of the material, the microstructure of localized strain bands consists of strongly deformed material, with a large number of incipient microdiscontinuities. At stresses below the Hugoniot elastic limit, the microstructure looks as a set of barely visible stripes. The finely striped structure at the edges of the bands of a spall damage arises as a result of the stretching of initially rounded damage centers attached to the matrix material during dynamic deformation.