Shear strength measurements in a tungsten alloy during shock loading

Abstract

Lateral stress measurements in a tungsten alloy, in combination with known Hugoniot data, have been used to find the shear strength of this material, and its variation with longitudinal shock stress, up to 14 GPa. Results show that the shear strength increases significantly with increasing stress. Prior to this work, there has been disagreement in the literature on the effect of shock stress on the shear strength of tungsten and its alloys. The present work agrees with the data obtained by Zhou and Clifton [J. Appl. Mech. 64, 487 (1997)] who used pressure shear. However, the range of stresses studied has been greatly extended.