An impact facility has been designed and constructed to produce and measure large amplitude one-dimensional compression and shear waves in solids. Design considerations and experimental details to produce the necessary impact configuration and to measure the particle velocity profiles resulting from compression and shear waves are described. Experimental results are presented to show that the impact facility was satisfactorily constructed. After a brief discussion of shear wave measurements, the experimental measurements made under compression and shear loading in polymethyl methacrylate and polycrystalline aluminum oxide are presented. These results are expected to provide new information on material response at high strain rates.

Lateral stress measurements and shear strength in shock loaded tungsten carbide

A new design for coaxial electrical discharge pins for recording rapid transient events, e.g., motion of shock disturbances, has been developed. The method of construction involves vapor plating techniques for the deposition of the dielectric and outer conductor. The performance of these pins (``Sigma'' pins) has been measured at pressures from nearly 0 to 360 kbars. The response time (the time interval between 10 and 90% of the linear portion of the total amplitude of the signal received) of the pin is less than 0.005 μsec.

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