Impulsive tension of ethanol under shock loading

This paper reports results from experimental studies of the strength of ethanol under impulsive tension due to interaction of a triangular compression pulse with the free surface. The experiments were performed in the range of strain rates 4 $\cdot$ 10$^4$ – 4 $\cdot$ 10$^5$ sec$^{-1}$. It is established that the failure of ethanol is a two-stage process. In the first stage at a negative pressure of about 14 MPa, pore formation begins, which proceeds at a rather low rate and is manifested as an inflection on the free-surface velocity profile. In the second stage, the porosity growth rate increases, resulting in formation of a spalling pulse. The possibility of using the model of homogeneous nucleation to interpret experimental data is discussed.