Inelastic Behavior of Tungsten-Carbide in Pressure-Shear Impact Shock Experiments Beyond 20 GPa

Pressure-shear plate impact (PSPI) tests commonly use Tungsten-Carbide (WC) as anvil plates, sandwiching the tested material. The common use of WC in these tests is due to its high impedance and high strength, allowing to reach high pressures, with an elastic response, enabling a straightforward analysis of the tested material. Recent modifications of a powder gun facility at Caltech have enabled pressure-shear plate impact experiments (PSPI) to reach higher velocities with corresponding higher pressures and strain rates. Entering this regime, the inelastic behavior of WC has to be taken into account to extract the response of the tested material. In this work we examine the inelastic behavior of WC in the pressure-shear set-up via numerical simulations and PSPI experiments. The 3D numerical simulations enabled to study effects of friction, slip and tilt on the measured signals and so their sensitivity to the material strength and failure behavior. A material model was calibrated in relation to the experimental results.