Abstract
As a representative structure, ping-pong balls are usually used to study the mechanical properties of thin-walled spherical shells. In a previous study, the dynamic behaviors of ping-pong balls impinged onto a rigid plate were investigated. It was found that the dynamic deformation energy of the balls could be several times higher than that under quasi-static compression, which could not be completely explained by elastic-plastic material property, strain-rate and inertial effects. In this paper, more impact tests were conducted and the details including the contact time, deformation and rebound behaviors with different impact velocities were reinvestigated. Based on the experimental results, visco-elastic material model is applied and the numerical simulation of thin-walled spherical shells impact onto a plate is performed, in which the influences of the visco-elastic parameters and the impact velocity on the dynamic behaviors are studied. By adjusting the visco-elastic parameters, the contact time, deformation, and the coefficient of restitution agree well with the experimental results.
Highlights
Due to high load-carrying efficiency and good aerodynamic properties, thin-walled spherical shells are extensively applied in engineering structures, and for sports facilities, such as aircraft, submarine, pressure vessels, oil containers, footballs, tennis balls and so on
Zhang et al / Dynamic behaviors of visco-elastic thin-walled spherical shells impact onto a rigid plate gy absorption of metal hollow sphere (MHS) materials, Ruan et al (2006) investigated the dynamic crushing of 1D and 2D ping-pong ball arrays under in-plane impacts and found that a single ball’s load-deformation relation can be used to predict the ball-array’s load deformation behavior
To dig out more details about the dynamic behaviors of the ping-pong ball and study the influences of the visco-elasticity, the impact process of visco-elastic thin-walled spherical shells is simulated by means of non-linear finite element code ABAQUS/ explicit
Summary
Due to high load-carrying efficiency and good aerodynamic properties, thin-walled spherical shells are extensively applied in engineering structures, and for sports facilities, such as aircraft, submarine, pressure vessels, oil containers, footballs, tennis balls and so on Considering loading conditions, their large deformation and buckling behaviors compressed against a rigid plate attract great attentions of researchers. Hubbard and Stronge (2001) conducted the impact tests for ping-pong balls onto a flat plate with velocity 0-20m/s, and obtained the contact time and coefficient of restitution In their analytical modeling, they considered the balls to be pure elastic. The influences of the visco-elasticity of the materials and impact velocity on the dynamic deformation, contact time and restitution characteristics of the balls are examined
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