Dynamic tensile strength of mercury

Abstract

The dynamic tensile strength of mercury has been determined using very-short-duration (∼100 ns) stress pulses generated by an electron-beam machine. Tensile strengths of 1900 MPa (19 kbar) are observed for mercury at maximum tensile stress rates of ∼75 MPa/ns. These results are somewhat lower than the value of 3000 MPa predicted by homogeneous nucleation theory.

Modeling and simulation of fragmentation of suddenly heated liquid metal jets.

“…The liquid fracture pressure increased from 7 to 425 atm by additional cleaning of the mercury. Further experiments [9], performed under controlled conditions with highly purified mercury, show that the fracture pressure is ≈19 katm; very similar to the theoretical limit of 22.3 katm. The overall agreement between mercury experiments and the theory was very good [9].…”

“…Experiments to study liquid fracture under negative pressure have been carried out with liquid mercury under various conditions [8,9]. Early experiments of Briggs [8] showed that the fracture pressure has a strong dependence on experimental conditions, i.e., cleanliness of the mercury and the surfaces of the glass tube that contain the liquid.…”

“…Below, the problems of liquid target oscillation in the presence of large negative pressure, the mechanism of fragmentation, and the consequences are discussed on the basis of previous theoretical work [7], experimental data [8][9], and our HEIGHTS comprehensive numerical simulation package [13][14]. We have developed a new concept of shock wave tensile relaxation that will lead to liquid target fragmentation because of target heating.…”

“…However, the problem of which mechanism is mainly responsible for liquid fragmentation and the production of liquid droplets was not properly studied. Nevertheless, various mechanisms that lead to liquid fragmentation do exist and were investigated in the 1940s and 1970s by several authors [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Thermoelastic response of suddenly heated liquid targets in high-power colliders

“…The fragmentation of liquid at strong negative pressure was investigated in the 1940s and 1970s by several authors who based their work on the Frenkel theory [1][2].…”