The dynamic process and internal mechanism of metal materials under shock loading have always been focused on shock physics fields, which are of great importance in both national basic engineering and development of cutting-edge weapons. Recent research progress of mechanical behavior and mechanics of metal materials loaded by shock wave based on our previous study is reviewed in this paper. We focus on the influence of internal and surface interface microstructure of metal materials on the mechanics of damage and failure processes and introduce the opportunities and challenges of material behavior under complex loading conditions. Finally, direction and key point of future work were discussed.

As a rapidly developing technology in the past two decades, additive manufacturing has been widely used in industries due to its high-efficiently in manufacture, particularly for the components with complex geometry. Since these components usually subjected to high-speed impact in application, the issue of load-bearing capacity and failure characteristics becomes a major concern, also causes great challenges for the application of laser additive manufacturing technology and product development in national defense, military and weapons. In this study, the technical principles and characteristics of additive manufacturing was summarized, and then the macro/micro mechanical response of additive manufactured metallic components subjected to high-speed impact was introduced emphatically. The changes induced by the new manufacturing techniques in dynamic performance of metallic materials were explored. Lastly, the potential prospects of additive manufacturing techniques as well as the products were forecast in the field of national defense and military weapons.

As an important ceramic and semiconductor material, silicon carbide has important engineering and scientific value in application fields such as national defense, military, aerospace, and high-pressure material science. This paper summarized the physical and mechanical behaviors, and characteristics of silicon carbide under dynamic loading, such as deformation, damage and failure, providing a research progress in the deformation and failure of silicon carbide under different loading conditions and microstructures from both the experimental studies and computational simulations. Then the paper summarized some existing problems related to the dynamic response of silicon carbide materials, and proposed several important development directions in this field, in order to provide a useful reference for the research of related research groups.

Deformation and damage of metallic materials under shock loading depend on microstructure and loading characteristics. The effects of microstructures such as grain size, texture, grain boundary, phase boundary and element segregation bands on deformation and damage of metallic materials are reviewed, as well as the coupled effects of pulse duration, peak stress and strain rate on spall strength. This review provides a reference for establishing the relationship among microstructure, loading characteristics and deformation and damage behavior of metallic materials under shock loading.

The ductility/toughness of the high strength materials is usually inadequate, while high strength metals and alloys with good ductility/toughness can be obtained by designing the heterogeneous structures. Thus, the quasi-static and dynamic behaviors of the metals and alloys with heterogeneous structures have attracted extensive research interests in the areas of mechanics of materials and impact dynamics. The present paper reviewed the progress in the aspect of the dynamic properties and the corresponding microstructural mechanisms of several heterogeneous structures, such as gradient structures, dual-phase structures, multi-modal grain structures. For example, the metals with heterogeneous structures show better dynamic shear toughness and impact toughness than those with homogeneous structures. The initiation and propagation of adiabatic shear bands in the heterogeneous structures are totally different from those in homogeneous structures, due to the inhomogeneous microstructures. The interfaces and the soft domains in the heterogeneous structures can suppress the initiation and propagation of adiabatic shear bands, delaying the failure of materials. The superior dynamic properties can be achieved in the heterogeneous structures due to the extra strain hardening induced by the inhomogeneous deformation.

Temperature rise is an important feature of adiabatic shear phenomenon for many materials. Understanding the role of temperature rise in adiabatic shear is of great significance, because it helps us to get insight into the initiation and evolution mechanism of adiabatic shear band（ASB） and to predict accurately the dynamic failure of materials and structures. Generally speaking, the temperature rise in adiabatic shear deformation can be divided into three stages: uniform deformation stage, shear localization stage, and post-ASB stage. Theoretical calculation, numerical method, experimental measurement and relation with microstructural evolution of temperature rise during adiabatic shear deformation are reviewed. By this review, inspirations and reference are expected for future research work on adiabatic shear failure and related fields.

Experiments and molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to understand the dynamic deformation behavior, microstructure evolution characteristics and mechanism of near equiatomic NiTi alloy at high pressures and high strain rates. In the experiments, the dynamic deformation characteristics of Ni₅₂Ti₄₈ alloy under shock compression and shock loading-unloading were studied by electromagnetically driven high-velocity flyer plate, momentum trapping and soft recovery experimental techniques based on high current pulse power device CQ-4. By means of X-ray diffraction and electron backscattered diffraction, the microstructure characteristics of Ni₅₂Ti₄₈ alloy were analyzed, the results show that there is no martensitic transformation in Ni₅₂Ti₄₈ alloy under shock compression and tension, and the main deformation mode is plastic deformation such as dislocation slip. Moreover, the microstructure evolution characteristics and deformation mechanism of Ni₅₂Ti₄₈ alloy under shock compression were studied by non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, and the calculated results well reflect the microstructure characteristics observed in the experiment. Meanwhile, the spall strength of Ni₅₂Ti₄₈ alloy at different initial ambient temperatures was calculated, and the results show obvious unloading strain rate effect. The related work has deepened the understanding of the deformation behavior of Ni₅₂Ti₄₈ alloy at high pressures and high strain rates, and provided a reference for its safe service in extreme environment.

Twin deformation is an important deformation mechanism of hexagonal close-packed (HCP) magnesium, and has a significant influence on the plastic hardening, failure and texture evolution of materials. There are many factors affecting twin deformation: orientation texture, grain size, strain rate, temperature, grain boundary and stress state, etc. Firstly, this paper focuses on the influence of the first three factors on the twin deformation. The activation of twins should consider the combination of the strain accommodation between adjacent grains and the orientation dependent Schmid’s law, instead of the later one solely. The effect of grain size on twinning can be described by Hall-Petch relation. However, the slope of Hall-Petch relation dominated by twin is larger than that of slip. And the twin nucleation and growth could be promoted by increasing the strain rate. Then, the common twin theory models are analyzed. Finally, the developments of twin deformation in experiment and theoretical models are prospected.

Martensitic transformation is a diffusionless, displacive and first-order phase transformation, which produces complex microstructures such as needle-like structure and surface tilting. Due to these microstructures having significantly influence on the macroscopic physical and mechanical properties, related studies have important scientific and engineering values. Phase field modeling has become a powerful theoretical and computational tool for simulating martensitic transformation because of its unique advantages to describe the complex interface evolution. In this study, the advances of phase field modeling of martensitic phase transformation was summarized, and the characteristics of the phase field modeling applied to the weak and reconstructive martensitic transformation were analyzed.

$\alpha $↔$\varepsilon $ transformation of iron is a prototype of high-pressure phase transition in metals. With the progress of detecting technology, mechanism and dynamics of the phase transition have being investigated in depth. Laser-driven in situ X-ray observation combined with non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation is one of the most effective approach to the issue. In present paper, the progress of atomic investigations on plasticity and phase transformation of iron under dynamic loading is reviewed. The effects of high-pressure interatomic potential of iron, crystal anisotropy, impact strength, strain rate, strain gradient and various initial crystal defects on phase transformation mechanism, phase transformation and spalling of iron are analyzed. Meanwhile, the latest progress of our researches on nonplanar-loading responses of iron is reported. Finally, the conclusion and prospect are given.