Experimental research on HEL and failure properties of alumina underimpact loading

A series of plate impact experiments on alumina was conducted using a light gas gun in order to further investigate Hugoniot elastic limit （HEL）and failure properties of alumina under shock compression. The velocity interferometer system for any reflector （VISAR） was used to record therear-free surface velocity histories of the alumina samples. According to the experimental results, the HELs of tested alumina samples withdifferent thicknesses were measured, and the decay phenomenon of elastic wave in shocked alumina was studied. A phenomenological expressionbetween HEL and thickness of sample was presented, and the causes of the decay phenomenon were discussed. The propagation of failure wavein shocked alumina was probed. The velocity and delayed time of failure wave propagation were obtained. The physical mechanism of thegeneration and propagation of failure was further discussed.