Pressure-shear waves in 6061-T6 aluminum and alpha-titanium

Thepressure-shear plate impact technique is used to study material behavior at high rates of deformation. In this technique, plastic waves of combined pressure and shear stresses are produced by impact of parallel plates skewed relative to their direction of approach. Commercially pure alpha-titanium and 6061-T6 aluminum are tested under a variety of pressure and shear tractions by using different combinations of impact velocities and angles of inclination. A laser interferometer system is used to monitor simultaneously the normal and transverse components of motion of a point at the rear surface of the target plate. The experimental results are compared with numerical solutions based on an elastic/viscoplastic model of the material. Both isotropic and kinematic strain hardening models are used in the computations. The results indicate that unlike the normal velocity profiles, the transverse velocity profiles are sensitive to the dynamic plastic response and, thus, can be used to study material behavior at high strain rates. For the materials tested the results suggest that the flow stress required for plastic straining increases markedly with increasing strain rate at strain rates above 10⁴s^?1. Hydrostatic pressure of the order that exists in the tests (up to 2 GPa) does not affect the plastic flow in 6061-T6 aluminum and appears to have at most a minor effect on the deformation of the titanium.