The shock wave response of a filled glass

The shock wave loading of brittle materials has been the subject of much recent interest. One of the outstanding questions concerning the compressive behaviour is the mechanism for failure at the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL). While much work has centred around relatively open structure, low density glasses such as borosilicate (pyrex) and soda-lime (float, which is partially filled), relatively little has addressed the response of highly filled lead glasses. This work presents the results of a series of plate impact experiments carried out on the lead glass DEDF. This material was shocked in uniaxial strain and the longitudinal component of stress was measured. The material showed pronounced elastic precursor decay and response reminiscent of alumina ceramics.