An electromagnetic Hopkinson bar for low wave impedance material and complex stress paths loading tests

Abstract

The split Hopkinson bar has been widely used for testing the dynamic mechanical properties of various materials. However, there are still difficulties in ensuring stress uniformity when testing some low wave impedance materials such as soft materials and brittle materials and difficulty in achieving true multi-axial and multi-directional synchronous loading experiments and other issues. To overcome these issues, this paper uses an electromagnetic Hopkinson bar for experimental research and introduces its principle and implementation process. Finite element analysis and experimental methods were used to verify the feasibility of the electromagnetic Hopkinson bar in addressing the relevant issues. The superiority of the new device was demonstrated by its capability in performing compression experiments on two typical low wave impedance materials: polymethacrylates (PMMA) and polyurethane (PU), and two-way tension experiments on 2024 aluminum alloy. The results indicate that the electromagnetic Hopkinson bar can effectively solve the problem of uniform stress in low wave impedance materials testing, and can achieve synchronous loading of complex stress paths.