Compressive behavior of Sulcata Tortoise’s carapace at high rate of deformation

Abstract

This paper presents the dynamic compressive response of tortoise carapace at high rate of deformation. Disk specimens are cut from carapace and compressed using Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) technique. The steel bar system together with a copper pulse shaper generate an incident wave that can achieve a constant rate of deformation within the specimens. The results show increasing compressive modulus and compressive strength compared to the quasi-static data of carapace. The strain waves on the incident and the transmission bars from finite element analysis based on the experimental setup agree with the test data.