ON THE SHOCK RESPONSE OF AN ULTRA-HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT POLYETHYLENE COMPOSITE

The shock and release behaviour of Dyneema (R) HB50 has been investigated, using a single stage light gas gun with manganin pressure gauges The Dyneema (R) composite was investigated in the U-S-u(p) and P-u(p) regime for two different orientations (fibres parallel and perpendicular to the impact axis respectively) and compared to data in the literature. It was found that for Dyneema (R) HB50 orientation makes no difference to any of the investigated shock properties. It was noted that the pressure observed in the Dyneema (R) HB50 was elevated, in comparison to the Hugoniot, but agreed with the Hugoniot obtained previously for polyethylene. This shock pressure differed to that seen in the literature, leading to the conclusion that pressure is dependent on the composite used but not orientation.