The role of residual stress in a Prince Rupert's drop of soda-lime glass undergoing a self-sustained and stable destruction/fracture wave

It is shown experimentally using colour high-speed framing photography, carried out at 1 million frames per second that in a Prince Rupert's drop made of soda-lime glass, a self-sustained destruction/fracture wave can travel at a steady and stable speed of (1700 +/- 100) m s(-1). It is also shown that this limiting velocity of the destruction/fracture wave, which is considerably smaller than the longitudinal wave velocity of similar to 5300 in s(-1) in this glass, is due to crack bifurcation, which occurs in individual cracks moving at the limiting velocity, at the immediate front of the destruction/fracture wave. Moreover, it is also shown that in the intact part of a Prince Rupert's drop undergoing a self-sustained destruction/fracture wave, the residual stress state remains approximately unaltered until the intact part comes to within about one mm of the advancing destruction/fracture wave front. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Veriag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim