DYNAMIC FAILURE OF SHOCK-LOADED GLASS

Failure wave generations on both impacted surface and internal surface inside the sample have been observed for K9 glass under planar shock wave loading, which demonstrates that formation of failure wave is a p rocess related to the surface microcracks nuclei developing. Based on these observations, a hypothesis is suggested that the large local str ains resulting from the rearrangement of SiO4 tetrahedral within the p ermanent densification region behind the shock wave front and then str ains releasing due to the surface microcracks developing could be resp onsible for the failure wave generation.