Dynamic characterization of compliant materials using an all-polymeric split Hopkinson bar

The split Hopkinson bar is a reliable experimental technique for measuring high strain rate properties of high-strength materials. Attempts to apply the split Hopkinson bar in measurement on more compliant materials, such as plastics, rubbers and foams, suffer from limitations on the maximum achievable strain and from high noise-to-signal ratios. The present work introduces and all-polymeric split Hopkinson bar (APSHB) experiment, which overcomes these limitations. The proposed method uses polymeric pressure bars to achieve a closer impedance match between the pressure bars and the specimen materials, thus providing both a low noise-to-signal ratio data and a longer input pulse for higher maximum strain. The APSHB requires very careful data reduction procedures because of the viscoelastic behavior of the incident and transmitter pressure bars. High-quality stress-strain data for a variety of compliant materials, such as polycarbonate, polyurethane foam and styrofoam, are presented.