This article presents experimental results of the dynamic yield strength and dynamic tensile strength (“spall strength”) of aluminum single crystals at shock-wave loading as a function of temperature. The load duration was ∼40 and ∼200 ns. The temperature varied from 20 to 650 °C which is only by 10 °C below the melting temperature. A linear growth of the dynamic yield strength by more than a factor of 4 was observed within this temperature range. This is attributed to the phonon drag effect on the dislocation motion. High dynamic tensile strength was maintained over the whole temperature range, including the conditions at which melting should start in a material under tension. This could be an indication of the existence of superheated states in solid crystals.

Measurements of the dynamic tensile strength of aluminum and magnesium have been carried out by investigations of the spall phenomena over a wide range of temperatures, shock-wave intensities, and load durations. Free-surface velocity profiles were recorded with VISAR and used to provide the spall strength measurements. The initial temperature of samples was varied from room temperature to near the melting point. The peak compressive pressure in the shock waves was varied from 5 to 50 GPa for aluminum and from 2 to 10 GPa for magnesium. The load duration was varied by more than one order of magnitude. The free-surface velocity measurements showed a precipitous drop in the spall strength of preheated samples as temperatures approached the melting point. No significant influence of the peak pressure on the spall strength was observed. The strain-rate dependencies of the spall strength could be represented as power functions with a power index of 0.060 for aluminum and 0.072 for magnesium. Unexpectedly large amplitudes for the Hugoniot elastic limit of both aluminum and magnesium were observed at temperatures approaching the melting point.

A series of magnesium single crystals, from 0.2 to 3 mm thick, were shock loaded in directions parallel and perpendicular to the c-axis of the hexagonal closed packed (hcp) structure and at 45° to the c-axis. Shock compression along the c-axis is associated with the largest Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) for this material. Microscopic observation of recovered c-cut samples demonstrated intense twinning with a greater density of twins near the impact surface. The low-energy basal slip was activated by shock loading along the inclined direction and has the smallest HEL. In all cases, we observe the decay of the elastic precursor wave and growth of the HEL with increasing temperature. For the inclined shock compression after the HEL, two plastic waves were found where the stress level of the first plastic wave depends on the peak shock stress. Finally, the largest spall strength was along the transversal direction and the smallest in the off-axis direction. The fracture surface of the sample of transversal orientation contains numerous groves oriented along the base planes of the crystals.

Spall strength measurements for commerical grade molybdenum and molybdenum single crystals were made in a wide range of load durations (∼10⁻⁹ s – 10⁻⁶ s) and intensities (∼5 – 100 GPa). Resistance to fracture of pure single crystals was found to exceed two times the spall strength of polycrystalline molybdenum and to increase with shorter load duration. The value of the shock wave amplitude does not influence the spall strength of single crystals. The largest spall strength obtained under nanosecond load duration amounts to 30% of the ultimate theoretical strength.

This paper briefly reviews recent experimental results on the temperature-rate dependences of flow and fracture stresses in metals under high strain rate conditions for pulsed shock-wave loads with durations from tens of picoseconds up to microseconds. In the experiments, ultimate (‘ideal’) values of the shear and tensile strengths have been approached and anomalous growth of the yield stress with temperature at high strain rates has been confirmed for some metals. New evidence is obtained for the intense dislocation multiplication immediately originating in the elastic precursor of a compression shock wave. It is found that under these conditions inclusions and other strengthening factors may have a softening effect. Novel and unexpected features are observed in the evolution of elastoplastic compression shock waves.