Nonisentropic Release of a Shocked Solid

P. G. Heighway, M. Sliwa, D. McGonegle, C. Wehrenberg, C. A. Bolme, J. Eggert, A. Higginbotham, A. Lazicki, H. J. Lee, B. Nagler, H.-S. Park, R. E. Rudd, R. F. Smith, M. J. Suggit, D. Swift, F. Tavella, B. A. Remington, and J. S. Wark

Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 245501 – Published 13 December 2019

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.

Received 18 May 2019
Revised 9 September 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.245501

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Shock waves

Molecular dynamics X-ray diffraction

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

P. G. Heighway¹, M. Sliwa¹, D. McGonegle¹, C. Wehrenberg², C. A. Bolme³, J. Eggert², A. Higginbotham⁴, A. Lazicki², H. J. Lee⁵, B. Nagler⁵, H.-S. Park², R. E. Rudd², R. F. Smith², M. J. Suggit¹, D. Swift², F. Tavella⁵, B. A. Remington², and J. S. Wark ^1,*

¹Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
²Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550, USA
³Los Alamos National Laboratory, Bikini Atoll Road, SM-30, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
⁴York Plasma Institute, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
⁵SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA