Institute of Metals Division - The Annealing Kinetics of an Explosively Loaded Gold-Silver Alloy (TN)

THE stored energy and microhardness of a Au-Ag alloy deformed by explosive loading were measured previously as functions of shock pressure' and compared with corresponding data for drawn wires.' The difference of the two processes has been explored further by investigating the annealing behavior of explosively loaded specimens and drawn wires. Sheet specimens, 0.042 in. thick, of a Au-Ag alloy containing 82.6 wt pct Au were explosively loaded in stacks of four.3 Wires prepared from the same melt of alloy were drawn through dies.' The annealing kinetics were determined by microhardness measurements on separate specimens for each annealing temperature and time. Several values of the stored energy were measured by tin-solution calorimetry Experimental details are given elsewhere. Wires were drawn until the microhardness or stored energy equalled the corresponding values of the explosively loaded specimens as nearly as possible. Wire drawn to a true strain 7 of 0.09 had approximately the same hardness and stored energy as specimens explosively loaded to a shock pressure of 70 kbar. The microhardness of specimens