Strength and failure of a damaged material

Under complex, dynamic loading conditions, damage can occur within a material. Should this damage not lead to catastrophic failure, the material can continue to sustain further loading. However, little is understood about how to represent the mechanical response of a material that has experienced dynamic loading leading to incipient damage. Here, this effect is examined in copper. Copper is shock loaded to impart an incipient state of damage to the material. Thereafter compression and tensile specimens were sectioned from the dynamically damaged specimen to quantify the subsequent properties of the material in the region of intense incipient damage and in regions far from the damage. It is observed that enhanced yield stresses result from the damaged material even over material, which has simply been shock loaded and not damaged. These results are rationalized in terms of stored plastic work due to the damage process.