On the dynamic tensile strength of an FCC metal

The tensile response of ductile, polycrystalline metals is often accompanied by the formation of pores within the material, which coalesce and fail a plane within a metal. This large deformation process is broadly progressive, with a physical path consisting of nucleation, growth, coalescence, and failure, which occur individually over short periods of time. Thus distinct micro-mechanisms operate, each influenced by microstructure, loading path, and loading profile, which remains a significant challenge to represent and predict numerically at the macroscale. In a previous study, the influence of loading path on damage evolution in high-purity tantalum has been presented; in this paper, complimentary measurements are made on a pure, FCC copper. Samples were shock loaded to three different peak stresses using both symmetric impact, and two different composite flyer plate configurations, such that upon unloading, the three samples were subject to nearly identical tensile loading. The damage evolution in the soft-recovered copper samples was then quantified using optical metallography and electron-back-scatter diffraction. We shall compare metallurgical observations, velocimetry histories and simulations to discuss the dynamic failure mechanics observed.