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Nonisentropic Release of a Shocked Solid
P G Heighway1, M Sliwa1, D McGonegle1
1Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We present molecular dynamics simulations of shock and release in micron-scale tantalum crystals that exhibit postbreakout temperatures far exceeding those expected under the standard assumption of isentropic release. We show via an energy-budget analysis that this is due to plastic-work heating from material strength that largely counters thermoelastic cooling. The simulations are corroborated by experiments where the release temperatures of laser-shocked tantalum foils are deduced from their thermal strains via in situ x-ray diffraction and are found to be close to those behind the shock.
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