On the measurement of the impact energy of ceramics at different loading rates in instrumented impact tests

Abstract

The impact energy of a ceramic is measured in instrumented impact tests by means of a novel high sensitivity striker tup. The measured impact energy shows a strongly increasing trend with increasing impact velocity. High speed cinematographic investigations indicate that a considerable part of the measured impact energy is transferred into kinetic energy of the moving specimen halves after impact. If this kinetic energy is subtracted from the measured values of the impact energy a quantity representing the true fracture energy is obtained which does not depend on the impact velocity.