An investigation of shock-induced phase transition in soda-lime glass

There exists a large body of evidence from experiments and molecular dynamics simulations to suggest the occurrence of phase transitions in soda-lime glass (SLG) and other silica glasses subject to shock compression to pressures above 3 GPa. In light of these findings, the current work investigated the existence of phase transition in SLG using shock and release experiments. The experiments employed symmetric SLG–SLG impact to achieve complete unloading to zero stress after shock compression to stresses in the range of 3–7 GPa. The stress–strain response and the Lagrangian release wave speed behavior of SLG obtained from these experiments are seen to reveal a mismatch between the loading and unloading paths of the pressure–strain curve for the material, which serves as compelling evidence for the occurrence of a shock-induced phase transition in the material at relatively low pressures. Furthermore, the release wave speed vs strain data obtained from experiments were used to construct a methodology for modeling the shock and release behavior of SLG. Lastly, this scheme implemented in numerical simulations was able to capture the release behavior of shock compressed SLG, for which a robust and satisfactory model was previously unavailable.