9523113 Espinosa The proposed research deals with a combined experimental and theoretical approach using impact loading to study the influence of microstructural features on failure of ceramics. The experimental approach uses novel plate and impact experiments where the magnitude and duration of stress pulses can be selected so that the damage event is stable and its evolution can be monitored under well defined deformation histories. As a result, damage evolution rather than final accumulated damage can be identified. These results will form the basis for comprehensive understanding of the processes occurring during inelastic deformation and formulation of physically based constitutive equations. Interferometrically measured velocity histories will be used in the examination of formulated models. Correlation between measured and numerically computed velocity histories will be accomplished by performing numerical simulations of the experiments with inelastic models accounting for the observed failure mechanisms. ***
