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Drop Tower Adaptation for Medium Strain Rate Tensile Testing

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Abstract

A novel drop tower modification was designed and implemented in order to enable tensile coupon testing at medium strain rate regime (1–200/s), using a drop weight apparatus, instead of intermediate strain rate servo-hydraulic tensile machines. The developed tensile device, which consists of one movable and one rigid frame, has the ability to transform the compression loading of a drop tower machine into tension loading on the specimen. A simulation model of the proposed concept has been developed in the explicit FE code LS-DYNA and validated by experimental measurements of load and displacement histories. During the development phase, the model was used for the device preliminary design, i.e. the selection of the optimal acquisition sensor locations and the introduction of an absorber material in order to avoid undesired vibrations, as well as for the sizing of the main components of the device. During the testing phase, the numerical model was used for the determination of the appropriate testing parameters which lead to the desired testing conditions (velocity, strain rate and load level). The final design of the tensile device was implemented in an Instron drop tower machine and initial experimental tests were performed for the assessment of the proposed method. Details of the material types and specimen geometries that were tested, as well as impact testing parameters, such as range of strain rate, energy and velocity are comprehensively described in this paper. It was demonstrated that the proposed device can serve as a cost effective alternative of servo-hydraulic tensile machines, is compatible to Digital Image Correlation optical devices due to the good optical access to the tested specimen and does not introduce significant ringing effects in the piezoelectric load cell; therefore, it is suitable for medium strain rate tensile testing.

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Acknowledgments

The present work is partly funded by the EU, in the frame of ‘SMart Aircraft in Emergency Situations’ (SMAES) - RTD project, Contract No. ACP0-GA-2010-266172. The authors would like to express their gratitude to DASSAULT Aviation for designing and providing the composite tensile samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Technology and Strength of Materials, Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics Department, University of Patras, 26500, Rion, Patras, Greece

    N. Perogamvros, T. Mitropoulos & G. Lampeas

Authors
  1. N. Perogamvros
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  2. T. Mitropoulos
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  3. G. Lampeas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Lampeas.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix 1: Abbreviations

APDL:

ANSYS Parametric Design Language

CT:

Compact Tension

DIC:

Digital Image Correlation

DOF:

Degree Of Freedom

Eα :

Young Modulus at the principal longitudinal material axis

Eb :

Young Modulus at the principal transverse material axis

FAIL:

Plastic strain at failure

FE:

Finite Elements

FFT:

Fast Fourier Transformation

fps:

frames per second

Gαb :

In-plane shear modulus

GFRP:

Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic

HV:

High Velocity

LVDT:

Linear Variable Differential Transformer

PFV:

Photron FASTCAM Viewer

PMMA:

Poly(Methyl MethAcrylate)

Sc:

In-plane shear strength

SHPB:

Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar

Xt, Xc:

Longitudinal tensile and compressive strength

Yt, Yc:

Transverse tensile and compressive strength

ναb :

Poisson ratio

2D, 3D:

Two and three dimensional

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Perogamvros, N., Mitropoulos, T. & Lampeas, G. Drop Tower Adaptation for Medium Strain Rate Tensile Testing. Exp Mech 56, 419–436 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-015-0112-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-015-0112-3

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