Temperature Effects on Compaction and Strength During Shock Compression of Porous Silica

We use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of initial temperature on the Hugoniot response of shock compressed porous amorphous silica. We find that initial temperatures ranging from 77 to 1000 K can have an unusually significant effect on the final Hugoniot states for systems just above the elastic limit at pressures between 1.5 and 6 GPa. Outside this narrow range, temperature plays a much smaller role in the compression behavior. We use the constant-stress Hugoniostat methodology with the BKS interatomic potential for silicon dioxide. We will present data characterizing the effect on compaction and strength for a range of initial porosities. Multiple pore structures are also compared to investigate the role of microstructure.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.