Calibration of tensile tests in drop-weight impact machine and implementation in simulation of Charpy impact tests

Abstract

Material modeling and simulation of deformation under very high loading rate in the dynamic/impact range are applied in crash resistance, ballistic impact analysis, and other time-sensitive phenomena. Servo-hydraulic UTM tensile test data from medium to higher strain rate > (500 s-1) is reliable but expensive and complexity in experiment. Tensile testing at very high strain rate (upto 1500 s-1) can be done in a drop-weight impact testing machine with a special fixture and the impactor velocity controls strain rate. In INSTRON CEAST 9350 drop weight impact testing machine tensile tests are conducted at four velocities for amour steel. A 5MHz data acquisition system (DAQ) measures strain in specimen gauge length mounted with high-elongation strain gauge. An extensometer is used to calibrate the strain gauge in a quasi-static 10-4 s-1 tensile test. Tensile test data from impact machine is compared with stress-strain data from the INSTRON servo-hydraulic testing machine with DIC for different strain rates. Close matching in elastic modulus, yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation are observed. Material parameters of a strain rate-dependent material model (modified J-C model) are extracted from drop weight impact testing machine data clubbed with other tensile test data, used in FE simulation of very high strain rate tensile tests, and validated with experimental results. Later, the same material model and material parameters are used to simulate Charpy impact tests at various velocities and compared with experimental results which also show close matching.