Collisions through liquid films

Abstract

When impact occurs between clean metal surfaces, plastic flow of the metal usually takes place at the points of real contact, so that the pressures developed are as high as the dynamic yield pressure of the metal concerned. Early experiment show that if the surfaces are covered with a thin film of a highly viscous liquid, the pressures developed and transmitted through the liquid film may be sufficiently great to produce plastic deformation of the metal, even though no metallic contact occurs through the film (1). The existence of these high pressures in the liquid layer means that extremely high rates of flow and shear may be developed in the liquid film, and that the energy dissipated in overcoming viscous flow may lead to an appreciable temperature rise in the liquid. Even in much gentler impacts, where plastic deformation of the metal surfaces does not occur, very high pressures, rates of flow and shear, etc., may be developed in the liquid film. These effects are of great interest in any study of collisions through liquids; they are of particular significance in the study of the mechanism of detonation of liquid explosives by impact.