The ramping of shock waves in three glasses

We present experimental stress histories for shock loaded glass specimens which show that their response is strongly dependent on the glass structure. Soda-lime glass shows a clear ramping behaviour in the 0-4.3 GPa range which was not been observed before. We believe that this ramping is a consequence of decreasing elastic moduli with pressure, as is the case with the more open structured glasses like borosilicate and fused silica. A much denser glass shows no ramping in its response to planar shock loading, confirming the relationship between ramping and the open structure of glasses.