Inter-contact force analysis of impacted disk assembly by dynamic caustics

The caustic method was utilized to study the contact force transmission in disk assemblies under impact load. The mapping equations were obtained based on the first invariant of the stress components in the disk subject to a normal concentrated force, and a characteristic dimension of the maximum size in the caustic curve was proposed to evaluate the contact force between the disks. Transient patterns of the caustic shadows were recorded by means of a high-speed camera of off-focus imaging, then the histories of the inter-contact forces among the disks were obtained with respect to the conditions of different masses and heights of the falling hammers. The influence of the impact loading and impulsive velocity was analyzed with respect to the force responses of the disk assembly, the double-peak phenomenon with comparison to the initial masses, and the energy dissipation of the systems under impact of different momentums. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10125211)