Dynamics of supersonic microparticle impact on elastomers revealed by real-time multi-frame imaging

• Main Authors: Veysset, David Georges (Contributor), Maznev, Alexei (Contributor), Masser, Kevin A. (Author), Nelson, Keith Adam (Contributor), Hsieh, Alex J (Author), Kooi, Steven E (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry (Contributor), Hsieh, Alex J. (Contributor), Kooi, Steven E. (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature, 2016-07-13T14:04:13Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Understanding high-velocity microparticle impact is essential for many fields, from space exploration to medicine and biology. Investigations of microscale impact have hitherto been limited to post-mortem analysis of impacted specimens, which does not provide direct information on the impact dynamics. Here we report real-time multi-frame imaging studies of the impact of 7 μm diameter glass spheres traveling at 700-900 m/s on elastomer polymers. With a poly(urethane urea) (PUU) sample, we observe a hyperelastic impact phenomenon not seen on the macroscale: a microsphere undergoes a full conformal penetration into the specimen followed by a rebound which leaves the specimen unscathed. The results challenge the established interpretation of the behaviour of elastomers under high-velocity impact.