Shock relaxation by a strain induced martensitic phase transformation

As an alternative to the relaxation of a uniaxial shock loaded state by sli p or twinning, a model is developed for relaxation by a martensitic transfo rmation. For the case of copper shocked in a (110) direction, the elastical ly loaded, body-centered-orthorhombic structure is shown to relax to an iso statically strained f.c.c. crystal by a shuffle-type martensitic transforma tion. The specific model agrees well with results from an atomistic compute r simulation of the shock relaxation process. (C) 1999 Acta Metallurgica In c. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.