Fast cracks in high-speed photographs of shocked diamond

Geoffrey Willmott (1) , John Field (1)

1 Physics

Six fracture surfaces have been observed extending at velocities between c_R (the Rayleigh wave velocity) and 1.3c_R in high-speed photographs of four diamond specimens. The diamonds were embedded in a transparent polymer and shocked in plate impact experiments. The measured velocities exceed limiting velocities proposed in theoretical and practical studies of single mode I cracks in diamond. The fracture surfaces probably extend by initiation and coalescence of multiple tensile fractures along a single cleavage plane. This mechanism is dependent on the suppression of cracks branching from the {111} growth plane in diamond and considers the population of flaws near a propagating crack tip.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Geoffrey Willmott, John Field. Fast cracks in high-speed photographs of shocked diamond. Philosophical Magazine, 2006, 86 (27), pp.4305-4318. ⟨10.1080/14786430500482336⟩. ⟨hal-00513642⟩