Aluminum Rayleigh Taylor Strength Measurements and Calculations

A traditional approach to the study of material strength has been revitalized at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center (VNIIEF). Rayleigh Taylor strength experiments have long been utilized to measure the material response of metals at high pressure and strain rates. A modulated (sinusoidal or sawtooth perturbation) surface is shocklessly (quasi-isentropically) accelerated by a high explosive (HE) driver, and radiography is used to measure the perturbation amplitude as a function of time. The Aluminum T-6061 targets are designed with several sets of two-dimensional sawtooth perturbations machined on the loading surface. The HE driver was designed to reach peak pressures in the range of 200 to 300 kbar and strain rates in the range of 10{sup 4} - 10{sup 6} s{sup -1}. The standard constitutive strength models, Steinberg-Guinan (SG) [1], Steinberg-Lund (SL) [2], Preston-Tonks-Wallace (PTW) [3], Johnson-Cooke (JC) [4], and Mechanical Threshold Stress (MTS) [5], have been calibrated by traditional techniques: (Hopkinson-Bar, Taylor impact, flyer plate/shock-driven experiments). The VNIIEF experimental series accesses a strain rate regime not attainable using traditional methods. We have performed a detailed numerical study with a two-dimensional Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian hydrodynamics computer code containing several constitutive strength models to predict the perturbation growth. Results show that the capabilities of the computational methodology predict the amplitude growth to within 5 percent of the measured data, thus validating both the code and the strength models under the given conditions and setting the stage for credible future design work using different materials.