Review on critical impact velocities in tension and shear

Adiabatic heating, due to conversion of plastic work into thermal energy, substantially changes the boundary value problems in the theory of plastic wave propagation. Besides a systematic review of the subject, the thermal coupling during plastic wave propagation leading to adiabatic wave trapping is the main subject of this study. Two cases are analyzed, the adiabatic wave trapping in tension and also in shear. The case of shear is relatively new. The wave trapping by adiabatic deformation via thermal softening leads to the so called critical impact velocity (CIV). Theory, experiments and numerical analyses of the CIV in tension and shear is the main part of this paper. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.