The impact behaviour of a range of glass and ceramic materials has been studied using high-speed photography. A gas gun was used to project hardened steel spheres at plate specimens in the velocity range 30m s-1 to 1000m s-1. The target materials included soda-lime glass, boron carbide and various glass ceramics and aluminas. The controlled impacts were viewed at microsecond framing intervals using a Hadland Imacon camera. The camera was triggered by the projectile interrupting a laser beam. Results from these experiments have identified the various failure modes of the materials and given quantitative data on the energetics of impact. The performance of a particular ceramic was found to depend on a combination of parameters but of key importance was the relative hardnesses of the projectile and target materials. Targets which were harder than the projectile (for example, alumina or boron carbide targets) deformed and fractured the projectiles and prevented penetration. However, targets which were softer than the projectile (for example, glasses and glass ceramics) were penetrated relatively easily. In both cases, the fracture toughness, KIc, had only a minor effect. The results emphasize the value of high-speed photography for studies of the complex phenomena involved.

Date Published: 7 June 1989
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 1032, 18th Intl Congress on High Speed Photography and Photonics, (7 June 1989); doi: 10.1117/12.969184

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1032:
18th Intl Congress on High Speed Photography and Photonics
DaHeng Wang, Editor(s)