Study on the Shock Compression of Foam Silicon Rubber

An investigation has been carried out for the shock compression of the foam silicon rubber (FSR) with initial density of 0.92 g/cm3. In the pressure range from 6 GPa to 33 GPa, the Hugoniot relation between shock velocity D and particle velocity u has been obtained: D=1.686+1.367u. Compared with the relative results published previously, it is demonstrated that our experimental data are reasonable and have higher precision. Manganin gauges have been used in the experiments to determine the shock pressures, of which the signals differed greatly from the normal ones. The reasons for this phenomenon are analyzed carefully and further verified via 1D simulation. Moreover, the W-J model which is independent to our experiment thoroughly has been applied to predict the shock compression of the FSR. The prediction has a good agreement with the experimental results. It shows that the W-J model is suitable not only for metals or minerals but also for porous polymer.