A Study of the Failure Wave Phenomenon in Brittle Materials

Shock‐wave experiments with four glasses of different hardness, two ceramics, quartz and silicon single crystals have been carried out. Experiments with piles of thin sample plates confirm the appearance of the failure wave in elastically compressed fused quartz, K8 crown glass, and heavy flint glass, although the relationships between the Hugoniot elastic limits and the failure thresholds of these glasses are different. The failure waves were not recorded in quartz and silicon single crystals and polycrystalline alumina and boron carbide ceramics. The results show that the propagation speed of the failure wave in glass slightly depends on the stress above the failure threshold, and does not depend on the propagation distance. The process becomes unstable and stops at stresses near the failure threshold.