Shear stress measurements in copper, iron, and mild steel under shock loading conditions

A series of experiments have been conducted on metals subjected to planar impact loading in which a biaxial stress state and a uniaxial strain state is induced. Longitudinal and transverse stresses have been measured in copper, iron, and mild steel, using manganin stress gauges. The results have been used to calculate shear stress from the difference between the stress components. Results indicate that copper displays an increase in shear stress with pressure, showing similar trends to other work. An increase in dislocation density has been suggested as a possible mechanism. Iron shows a constant shear stress with increasing pressure, again in accordance with other workers. Finally, mild steel has been observed to have a significant increase in shear stress with increasing pressure. The inclusion of a hard second phase in the microstructure is thought to produce a large amount of dislocation debris, again explaining the observed hardening. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.