Studies on formation and propagation of failure waves in soda-lime glass

A series of plate impact experiments were conducted for soda-lime glass specimens on a one-stage gas gun in order to investigate the so-called failure wave phenomena under different impact velocities. In each shot, four pieces of specimens with different thicknesses are impacted simultaneously and the longitudinal stress histories at the backing surfaces of each of them are measured by manganin piezo-resistive stress sensors. Hence, the failure wave trajectory under a certain dynamic loading can be obtained by only one shot. Then the formation and propagation of the failure wave under different shock conditions can be obtained by changing impact velocities. The results show that the delay time for the failure wave to initiate decreases with the magnitude of impact loads, while correspondingly the failure wave velocity increases. In the end, the elastic statistical crack model is applied to describe the fracture mechanism of the soda-lime glass under shock loading and several plate impacts under different conditions are simulated by the LS-DYNA finite element program. The simulated results of the transverse stress and free surface particle velocity histories can be used to describe the failure wave phenomenon, and the trajectories obtained by simulation are compatible with experimental measurements.