The Propagation of Plasticity in Uniaxial Compression

Abstract

Abstract A theoretical investigation of the mechanism of uniaxial compression impact on elastic-plastic materials is described in this paper. The method of analysis is similar in some respects to that previously given for tension impact on such materials. It is concluded that four different kinds of behavior can occur, depending upon the impact velocity. In the lowest velocity range the behavior in compression is similar to that found in tension. In this case stress and strain are propagated from the point of impact as a zone or wave front of ever-increasing length. This type of behavior ends at a velocity corresponding to the “critical” velocity found in tension impact. Within the next higher velocity range, stress and strain are propagated as a shock-type wave, or wave of very small length in which the transition from low to high stress and strain is very abrupt. At still higher impact velocities, there occurs “flowing deformation” in which the material is too weak to maintain coherency. Here there is a steady flow of the material toward and against the hammer, after which it flows in a thin sheet radially outward over the face of the hammer. The final possible state occurs at impact velocities greater than the speed of an elastic wave, so that no disturbance can escape from the hammer into the medium. Here the behavior is essentially that of a fluid, impact force being independent of strength of material.