High strain-rate deformation of composite materials using a Split Hopkinson Bar technique

A specific experimental method, the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) technique has been constructed to determine the dynamic stress-strain relationships for composite materials under the impact compressive loading conditions with strain-rate of the order of 10(3)/s. The dynamic stress-strain behaviors are estimated by using the strain output from the gages attached on the incident and transmitted bars in the SHPB technique. Both the dynamic compressive maximum stresses and pseudo dynamic moduli of the tested composite materials are found to be highly sensitive to the strain rate. Furthermore, a bilinear relationship between the dynamic compressive maximum stresses and the log strain rate is noted.