Impact response of pearlitic steel dominated by ferrite/cementite interface

J Wang and ZW Ma and G Ding and R Yang and SL Cai and LH Dai and CS Lu and MQ Jiang, MECHANICS OF MATERIALS, 204, 105300 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.mechmat.2025.105300

It is experimentally difficult to ascertain the role of ferrite/cementite interface in the impact properties and structural evolution of pearlitic steel. In this paper, we propose a solution based on molecular dynamics simulations of planar shocks of pearlitic steel. It is found that the ferrite/cementite interface reflects the part of a shock wave and facilitates the nucleation of voids and dislocations. Consequently, the disturbance and plastic wave details are added to free surface velocity-time profiles. The evolution of voids contributes to the subsequent occurrence of spallation at interface, generating a power law relationship between the tensile strain rate and spall strength with an exponent of 2.7, which differs from that of 4.0 as spallation happens in polycrystalline ferrite regions.

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