An investigation on the adiabatic shear bands in depleted U-0.75 wt % Ti alloy under dynamic loading

Adiabatic shear bands in uranium alloy projectiles/penetrators, during penetration, allow them to “self-sharpen,” a process that is absent in most tungsten alloy projectiles/penetrators. U-0.75 wt % Ti alloy samples have been accelerated to impact steel targets, and the distribution of adiabatic shear bands in residual samples has been studied in detail to understand the effect of self-sharpening on penetration. In our study, self-sharpening was evidenced by the distribution of the shear bands in the recovered sample. The shear bands formed during impact were observed to change direction when they crossed grain boundaries, which indicated that the grain boundaries had an influence on the adiabatic shear bands of U-0.75 wt % Ti. Micro-hardness test results showed that the Vickers micro-hardness in the adiabatic shear zone was 18% lower than that in the matrix. In the split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) experiment, a strain rate of around 2891 s^-1 was the threshold strain rate that triggered the formation of adiabatic shear bands in the U-0.75 wt % Ti alloy.