U–6Nb shear stress relaxation in compression waves (IJP 585-AV)

When uranium alloyed with 6-wt% niobium (U–6Nb) is rapidly compressed in uniaxial strain experiments, shear stress is observed to relax with a characteristic time of 30 ± 7 ns. In shock wave experiments, this relaxation inhibits the development of an elastic precursor commonly seen in other materials. When U–6Nb is cold-rolled to pre-twin and significantly increase the density of dislocations in the material, stress relaxation effects are diminished suggesting that twinning causes relaxation in the un-worked material. Separate ramp wave compression experiments produce effects that agree with those observed in shock-loading experiments. A phenomenological model is introduced that allows accurate simulation of all experiments. Estimates of residual shear stress after relaxation are obtained.