Origins of plastic shock waves in single-crystal Cu

We investigate shock wave propagation in single-crystal Cu with large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. Plastic shock waves propagate via dislocation nucleation or growth. With decreasing particle velocity, a remarkable drop in plastic shock wave velocity relative to the linear shock velocity-particle velocity relation is observed in the elastic-plastic two-wave regime for different loading directions. This reduction can be attributed to the changes in the mechanisms of plastic shock wave generation/propagation, from the dislocation nucleation-dominant mode, to the alternating nucleation and growth mode, and to the growth-dominant mode. For weak shocks, the plastic shock advances at the speed of the growth of existing dislocations (below the maximum elastic shock wave speed), considerably slower than the dislocation nucleation front for strong shocks (above the maximum elastic shock wave speed). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.