Penetration dynamics of a carbonate sand: A synchrotron phase contrast imaging study

Penetration into granular materials such as carbonate sand is of fundamental importance to granular physics, and impact and civil engineering, but research along this line suffers considerably from the lack of direct experimental observations. Here we investigate such penetration dynamics of carbonate sand using a vertical gas gun implemented with in situ, high-speed, synchrotron-based X-ray phase contrast imaging. The experiments yield the...