A computational investigation of adiabatic shear plugging based on thermo-viscoplastic instability (Q1384820)

The authors consider the three-dimensional thermo-viscoplastic constitutive equation for equivalent stress-plastic shear and plastic shear rate (second invariants of deviators), by neglecting the elastic deformations and plastic volume changes. The stability loss condition is added (the vanishing of the differential of equivalent plastic shear stress) which balances the hardening due to the strain and strain rate increments with the softening due to the temperature increment. The latter, under adiabatic condition, is taken linearly proportional to the plastic energy variation. Further the authors assume a linear decrease in shear stresses in dependence on temperature. The resulting general solution includes integral constants which characterise each specific state of instability process, from the initiation of shear bands to the adiabatic shear fracture controlled by strain and its rate. In the case of titanium, the particular constitutive equation with factorized coefficients includes factors linearly dependent on strain and strain rate. The solution describes in the strain-strain rate plane three critical curves and four zones corresponding to the absence of shear bands, to deformed bands, to transformed bands, and to holes and microcracks considered in the frame of plugging fracture. The projectile is described by a hydroelastic-plastic dynamic model with a pressure dependent on the internal energy and on the cold pressure. The deviatoric stress increment (which includes rotation components) defines an increasing deviatoric shear stress referred to as a trial stress, while the corresponding equivalent shear stress delimits the values of the deviatoric stress increments. The constitutive equation for the shear stress is considered as a linear functional of yield stress, shear strain and elastic or plastic moduli. A numerical simulation using a two-dimensional developed finite element code ETVP provides the curve ``equivalent stress-strain rate'' and the temperature along a layer of the target. Additionally, the authors study the initiation and development of instability and fracture zones, the relation between velocity drop and the target thickness, and the relation between the adiabatic shear plugging energy absorption and the initial impact velocity. The results agree with experimental observations.