The effect of particle size on the shock compaction of a quasi-mono-disperse brittle granular material

Abstract

Several continuum models aim to represent the shock compaction of brittle granular materials but their success is limited by their insensitivity to the effects of meso-scopic features. This investigation is part of early attempts to quantify the effects of particle size on the macro shock response of a granular material. Plate impact experiments were conducted on beds of soda-lime glass microspheres. Three different quasimono-disperse particle size distributions were subjected to shock pressures between 0.6 - 4.5 GPa. There is an obvious difference between the compaction behaviour of 63 μm particles compared to beds of 200 and 500 μm particles. A precursor wave is present at low stresses that potentially signifies bulk material strength; the precursor magnitude decreases with increasing particle size.