FURI | Fall 2020

The Role of Pressure During Quenching on Shock-Induced Phase Transformations in Silica Glass

An in-depth understanding of the shock-compression behavior of silicate glasses is vital to the development of plate glass used for armor applications. This research intends to increase our understanding of the shock-compression behavior of pure silica glass (SiO2) by answering the following question. Does the pressure applied during the quenching process of molten silica to an amorphous solid influence the resulting silica’s phase transformation behavior during shock-compression? To answer this question, LAMMPS, a molecular dynamics simulator, was used to simulate the melting, quenching, and shocking of silica across a range of pressures to determine if such a correlation exists.