The 6th International Conference on Matter and Radiation at Extremes (ICMRE2023)

26 / 2023-03-31 22:09:25

Dynamic response of Yttrium Aluminum Garnet polycrystalline and single-crystal transparent ceramics: experiments and mesoscopic simulations

YAG transparent ceramic, Hugoniot elastic limit, failure mode, ballistic resistance

High Pressure Physics and Materials Science > Dynamic behavior of materials under compression-poster

Due to superior mechanical and optical properties, Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) is emerging as a potential transparent armor material. Its dynamic behavior, however, remains largely unexplored. In this work, both impact experiments and mesoscopic simulations have been performed to better understand the dynamic response of YAG polycrystalline and single-crystal transparent ceramics. Experimental results demonstrate that the two samples have remarkably different dynamic behaviors with the increasing shock pressure, in which the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) basically keeps unchanged (~14 GPa) in YAG polycrystalline ceramic while varies from 11 GPa to 31 GPa in YAG single crystal. Moreover, elastic precursor decay is visible only in single-crystal samples. Mesoscopic simulations with a lattice-spring model reveal that the difference arises from the distinct fracture mode in the two samples. Less damage and coarser fragmentations in YAG single crystal also suggest a probability of better ballistic resistance as transparent armor materials.