Investigation of fragments size resulting from dynamic fragmentation in melted state of laser shock-loaded tin

The understanding of dynamic fragmentation in shock-loaded metals and the evaluation of geometrical and kinematical properties of the resulting fragments are issues of considerable importance for both basic and applied science, for instance to predict the evolution of engineering structures submitted to high-velocity impact or explosive detonation. Among dynamic failure processes, spall fracture in solid materials has been extensively studied for many years, while scarce data can be found yet about how such phenomenon could evolve after partial or full melting on compression or on release. In this case, the dynamic fragmentation process, which may be referred to as 'micro-spalling', takes place in a liquid medium. It results in the formation of a cloud of fine molten droplets, ejected at high-velocity. The present work is devoted to experimental characterization, theoretical modelling and simulation of the 'micro-spalling' process in tin, with a specific emphasis on the size of the resulting fragments, namely the melted droplets. Laser-driven shock-loading experiments on tin have been performed. Post-test observations of the recovered fragments provide an insight into the actual fragmentation process and allow to infer the distribution of the fragments size which are found to be mostly sub-micrometric. Fragmentation modelling is based on a widely employed, energetic approach adapted to the case of liquids. This approach is implemented as a failure criterion in an one-dimensional hydrocode including a multiphase equation of state for tin. A fairly good agreement is obtained between experimental and computed sizes range. Some discrepancies are explained by both experimental uncertainties and model limitations which are carefully pointed out and discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.