Thresholds in Shock Response Across the Elements

Compendia of shock data have been assembled across national laboratories across the world. Previous work has shown a threshold in behaviour for materials; the weak shock limit. This corresponds to the stress state at which the shock is overdriven in a single front. Here the shock velocity-particle velocity data for elements and compounds has been systematically analysed to note discontinuities in the data. A range of materials show such features and the form of the discontinuity in each case is analysed. Some of these are found to correspond to martensitic phase transformations as expected whilst others are more difficult to classify. Particular groups within the elements show characteristic forms according to their groupings within the periodic table. Typical datasets are presented and trends in behaviour are noted for a range of elements.