Metastable states,relaxation mechanisms,and fracture of liquids under severe loading conditions

The relaxation properties and fracture of glycerol, silicone oil, transformer oil, and water have been studied experimentally under shock wave loading. The power-law strain rate dependences of the stress amplitude and spall strength were found for the compression and rarefaction fronts, respectively. It was shown that temperature has a strong influence on the spall strength of glycerol near the phase transformation temperature. The power laws reflect a self-similar nature of the momentum transfer and fracture mechanisms of liquids that are conventionally observed in solids and governed by the mechanisms of defect-induced structural relaxation. The mechanisms of viscoelasticity are related to the metastable states that may give rise to a collective behavior of displacement field fluctuations (microshearing) in liquids and thus provide a viscoplastic response of liquids under high strain rate loading.