Hugoniot and Penetration Experiments on a Nitrile Elastomer

Elastomers are effective materials for mitigating shock waves and high-velocity impacts. Despite their potential benefits in these extreme applications, gaps remain in our understanding of their Hugoniot and penetration behavior. Here, we conducted plate impact experiments to determine the shock Hugoniot of the elastomer using a reverse impact "ring-down" configuration. The elastomer was used as the flyer plate, which impacted a copper target with a known Hugoniot. As the shock wave reverberates in the copper, the stress rings down from the initial shock stress, and a Hugoniot point can be measured from each reverberation in the copper through impedance matching. We also present experiments that quantify the ability of the elastomer to dissipate energy during high-velocity impact by measuring the depth of penetration into an aluminum target, with and without the elastomer on the front face. These experiments are part of a joint effort to develop elastomer computational models for protection applications.