Impact response of a circular membrane

The major objective of this study is to investigate the transverse deformation of a finite-circular membrane after normal impact by a blunt projectile. A separation-of-variables technique is used to solve the governing two-dimensional-membrane equation. From observations obtained from a high-speed film of the impact, it is shown that the predicted displacements are in close agreement with experimentation. The theoretical formulation is also supperted by comparison with the experimental results obtained by Beynet and Plunkett, who studied the analogous problem of a thin plate subjected to ballistic impact.