Laser shock experiments prove insightful in high strain rate deformation

High strain rate laser shock has found numerous applications over the last decade including laser shock peening, laser adhesion testing in stack laminates of carbon fiber reinforced polymers, laser impact welding, and laser paint stripping. Ayad et al. investigated shock wave propagation produced by laser plasma through pure aluminum and aluminum alloys.

Thin materials, such as the millimeter-thick foils used in this research, experience deformation when subjected to the high pressure loads of laser shocks. Discriminating between the impact of loading parameters and the mechanical behavior of the metallic material is of critical importance to obtain an accurate dynamical response to laser shock wave propagation.

Using simulations of commercial codes, all experimental phenomena present during the wave propagation were reproduced. The results indicated that loading conditions should be investigated before adjusting the material model parameters.

“While these experiments have been used many times, the innovative part is the coupling between experiments and simulations,” said Ayad. “This work proved that we are able to study the ultradynamic response of materials under laser shock using the developed methodology that we validated on the pure aluminum and aluminum 2024-T3.”

This research will be beneficial for the verification of adhesion tests and laser paint stripping on critical applications like aircraft substrates.

Ayad said that future research in this field will center on replicating these models using different types of aluminum along with studying the link between microstructure and laser shock.

Source: “Modeling of multi-edge effects in the case of laser shock loadings applied on thin foils. Application for material characterization of aluminum alloys”, by Mohammad Ayad, Lucas Lapostolle, Alexandre Rondepierre, Corentin Le Bras, Marine Scius-Bertrand, Selen Ünaldi, Uroš Trdan, Yann Rouchausse, Jérémie Grassy, Teddy Mailot, Vincent Lapoujade, Charlotte Michel, and Laurent Berthe, Journal of Applied Physics (2022). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0080326 .