Contrasting the Behaviour of Single Crystal Aluminium and Tantalum During Shock Loading

To gain a greater understanding of the response of materials to shock (or any other mode of loading) it is often beneficial to start from a simple, well controlled state. In this case, we investigate chemically pure single crystals with known loading orientations, namely (100), (110) and (111). The materials chosen are typical of FCC and BCC metals; respectively aluminium and tantalum. Microstructural and mechanical analysis of recovered samples after shock loading show how changing the loading orientation of the single crystal can have a major effect on microstructural development and post shock mechanical properties such as shock hardening and work hardening.