PRESSURE-SHEAR RECOVERY EXPERIMENTS

We report the results of successful pressure-shear plate impact recove ry experiments. The technique makes use of a flyer configuration invol ving two plates which are separated by a thin lubricant layer, and a t arget assembly consisting of a specimen backed by a momentum trap. Thi s enables the recovery of the specimen that has been subjected to comb ined longitudinal and transverse loading pulses. A small amount of res idual shear, equal to the shear strength of the lubricant, cannot be e liminated. The transmitted stress waves have been measured using inter ferometry.