Experimental investigation of the shearing resistance of SODA-Lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and strain rates of 10^6 s^(-1)

Pressure-Shear Plate Impact (PSPI) experiments were conducted to measure the high-rate shearing resistance of soda-lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and at shearing rates of approximately 10^6 s^(−1). Samples of soda lime glass, 5 µm thick, were sandwiched between pure tungsten carbide (WC) plates and impacted by pure WC flyers. Impacting plates were inclined to the direction of approach by an angle of 18°. Normal stress and shearing resistance of the sample were calculated from measured free surface velocities using 1D elastic wave theory. The experimental results show that, at a pressure of 9GPa, the shear stress increases almost linearly up to 1 GPa and then falls quickly to approximately 0.3 GPa — after which it decreases slowly to approximately 0.17 GPa. Comparisons with results of previous experiments on nominally identical samples, impacted to generate lower peak pressures, showed the peak shearing resistance to be much higher at higher pressures; however, the sharp fall in shearing resistance occurs at comparable shear strains (1.5-2).