Spall Response of Electroplated Gold Samples

In this work, we performed 1D plate impact experiments to examine spall responses of electroplated gold samples produced using constant potential (DC plated) and pulsed plating techniques. The spall response of these two types of electroplated samples were compared with that of a wrought gold sample, all of which were shocked to a peak stress of ~37 GPa. Our results show comparable spall strengths of 2 GPa for the electroplated and the wrought gold samples. Spall strength values obtained from our gun experiment are similar to spall strength obtained from explosively driven shock experiments, but they are significantly lower than those reported in laser-driven shock studies on thin gold samples. Overall, our results show that electroplating is a viable method for producing gold samples that have dynamic mechanical properties comparable to those produced by conventional techniques.