Dynamic response of single crystalline copper subjected to quasi-isentropic, gas-gun driven loading

A transmission electron microscopy study of quasi-isentropic gas-gun loading (peak pressures between 18 and 52 GPa) of [0 0 1] monocrystalline copper was carried out. The defect substructures at these different pressures were analyzed. Current experimental evidence suggests a deformation substructure that transitions from slip to twinning, where twinning occurs at the higher pressures (∼52 GPa), and heavily dislocated laths and dislocation cells take place at the intermediate and lower pressures. Evidence of stacking faults at the intermediate pressures was also found. Dislocation cell sizes decreased with increasing pressure and increased with distance away from the surface of impact. The results from the quasi-isentropic experiments are compared with those for flyer-plate and laser shock experiments reported in the literature. The Preston–Tonks–Wallace constitutive description is used to model both quasi-isentropic and shock compression experiments and predict the pressure at which the slip-twinning transition occurs in both cases. The model predicts a higher twinning transition pressure for isentropic than for shock experiments, and that twinning should not take place in the quasi-isentropic compression experiments given the loading paths investigated.