Shock compression of Ta single crystals with dislocation sources*

We present non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations of shock wave compression of line Tantalum single crystals including pre-existing defects, which act as dislocation sources. We use the new embedded atom model (EAM) potential presented by Ravelo \textit{et al.} [Ravelo \textit{et al.}, SCCM2011 paper], developed for shock-wave simulations. We study the nucleation and evolution of dislocations and twins as a function of shock pressure and loading ramp time. We find a large dependence of the HEL (Hugoniot Elastic Limit) on strain rate. We compare the resulting dislocation densities and dislocation structures to existing experimental results on recovered samples.