Constitutive modeling for hypervelocity cratering

The Hypervelocity Microparticle Impact program conducted cratering experiments on copper and aluminum targets at impact velocities up to 30 km/s. These data are presented with minor corrections in a form that will be useful to a variety of investigators. Hydrocode analysis of the data was performed to gain understanding of the plateau features in the data. Analyses using conventional strength models were not satisfactory due to the very high strain rates of these experiments (strain rates on the order of 10{sup 10}/s). Calculations using the PTW strength model rate dependence gave very accurate reproduction of the experimental results, and allowed computational examination of the data plateaus. These results show that the data plateaus may be due to strain-rate effects and experimental variation in the data.