Gas-gun driven fragmentation
Gas-gun driven dynamic fracture and fragmentation is a controlled way to study how materials break apart under rapid, extreme deformation. Developed by the group over more than a decade, beginning in 2012, the technique uses a gas gun to launch a deformable sabot into a sleeve containing the ring or cylinder being tested. As the sabot deforms, it applies a rapidly increasing radial load to the inside of the sleeve, driving the outer specimen into high-speed free expansion until it begins to neck, fracture, and fragment.