Analysis of Proton Radiography Images of Shock Melted/Damaged Tin

TL;DR

This study uses proton radiography and velocimetry to analyze shock-induced damage in tin, revealing deterministic relationships between fragment shapes/velocities and coupon thickness, with some random small-scale variations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of shock damage in tin using proton radiography, distinguishing between deterministic and random features across different sample thicknesses.

Findings

Fragment shapes and velocities depend on coupon thickness.

Random features are small-scale and not thickness-dependent.

Leading layer and main fragment velocities differ by a consistent amount.

Abstract

Tin coupons were shock damaged/melted under identical conditions with a diverging high explosive shock wave. Proton Radiography images and velocimetry data from experiments with seven different tin coupons of varying thickness are analyzed. Comparing experiments with identical samples allowed us to distinguish between repeatable and random features. Shapes and velocities of the main fragments are deterministic functions of the coupon thickness; random differences exist only at a small scale. Velocities of the leading layer and of the main fragment differ by the same value independently of coupon thicknesses, which is likely related to the separation energy of metal layers.