COMPUTER STUDIES OF THE DYNAMIC STRENGTH OF CERAMICS

Using a new constitutive model, computer studies were performed concerning the dynamic yield strength of six ceramics, SiC, TiB2, AlN, two types of B4C, and partially stabilized zirconia. The relative importance of the thermomechanical variables, strain, strain-rate, pressure, and temperature, as well as the Bauschinger effect, is demonstrated in determining the time response of ceramics to high-strain-rate deformation. The constitutive model is easy to implement in a hydrodynamic computer code and successfully reproduces a variety of data for these materials.