  Dynamic loadings produce high stress waves leading to the spallation of
ductile materials such as aluminum, copper, magnesium or tantalum. The main
mechanism used herein to explain the change of the number of cavities with the
stress rate is nucleation inhibition, as induced by the growth of already
nucleated cavities. The dependence of the spall strength and critical time with
the loading rate is investigated in the framework of a probabilistic model. The
present approach, which explains previous experimental findings on the
strain-rate dependence of the spall strength, is applied to analyze
experimental data on tantalum.
