Measuring material strength in laser compressed Ta via in situ X-ray diffraction at the Dynamic Compression Sector

We present X-ray diffraction measurements of shock and ramp compressed tantalum performed at the Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS). By using a ‘tilted target’ geometry, we can find the sample shear strain by observing deviations in the Debye-Scherrer line position as a function of azimuthal angle [1]. This can be related to strength via the shear modulus, allowing for comparison with other high strain rate-strength experiments, such as Rayleigh-Taylor instability [2] and planar ramp release [3]. The results are compared to synthetic X-ray diffraction patterns generated by in our in-house developed crystal plasticity finite element model (CPFEM) [4]. UK Ministry of Defence © Crown owned copyright 2025/AWE

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[4] P. Avraam et al., Phys. Rev. Mater. 7 (11), 113608