Impact Loading Conditions Research Articles

Topological Design of a Mortar Base Plate under Impact Loads

In this work, the topology optimization of a mortar base plate is analysed under impact loading conditions. Usually, in this case, only ordinary topology optimization under volume constraints is considered. However, to reduce the quality of the mortar base plate and facilitate engineering applications, the topological optimization problem of the continuum of the base plate under the engineering and quality constraint is considered. A finite element model has been established and verified by testing for the mortar base plate. The variable density method was used to obtain the topological optimization results of the base plate based on the force transmission path, and then the structure was reconstructed. The mass of the optimization model of the base plate is 12.78% lower than that of the original model. In comparison with the original base plate before optimization, the results show that the maximum deformation and stress of the base plate decreased by 16.85% and 35.52%, respectively. Also, the firing stability of the mortar meets requirements, which not only meet the design requirement but also provide a reference for the performance improvement and structural optimization design of the base plate.

3D Physical Modelling Study of Shield-Strata Interaction under Roof Dynamic Loading Condition

The dynamic hazards in the open face area caused by the impact load of the massive strong roof become increasingly severe with the increase in the cutting height of the longwall face and its depth of cover. Understanding the strata-shield interaction under the dynamic impact loading condition may relieve the dynamic hazards. In this paper, a 3D physical modelling platform is developed to study the interaction between the roof strata and the longwall shield under the dynamic impact load conditions. A steel plate is dropped to the coal face wall at a certain height above the immediate roof to simulate the free fall of the main roof and the dynamic impact loading environment. The occurrence of major roof falls is modelled at different height above the model and at different positions relative to the longwall faceline. The large-cutting-height and top-coal-caving mining methods are modelled in the study to include the nature of the immediate roof. The results show that the level of face and roof failures depends on the magnitude of the dynamic impact load. The position and height of the roof fall have an important influence to the stability of the roof and face. The pressures on the shield and the solid coal face are relieved for the top-coal-caving face as compared to the large-cutting-height face.

Numerical Study on Shear Studded Tubed Steel Reinforced Concrete Columns Under Impact Loads

Tubed steel reinforced concrete (TSRC) columns are the advanced version of steel reinforced concrete column (SRC) which consists of inner and outer confinement along with the concrete core. In this composite member, a structural steel member and the outer confinement provides inner confinement as well as outer confinement. During recent years, TSRC sections got wide attention mainly because of its advantages over common CFST sections. Main advantage is that it simplifies the construction of beam-column joints and spalling of concrete during an event of earthquake can be avoided as outer steel confinement is provided. Many studies are done to check the performance of these TSRC columns in different loading scenarios. During the initial stages behavior under axial and eccentric loading was done on this section by different researchers and tried to develop analytic formulas and equations for TSRC columns. In this era of time it is necessary to check the ability of structures under impact loads. This study aims to investigate the performance of TSRC columns under impact loading condition and concluded. For the finite element analysis LS-Dyna software is adopted and for modelling purpose Hypermesh software is used. In this study, first validation is done by applying axial load vertically to the tubed steel reinforced concrete column. For the application of axial load rigid impactor plate is used. Impact force is applied to the TSRC short column in two directions: vertical, horizontal. For providing vertical impact a rigid plate impactor is used and for horizontal impact a dogde neon vehicle is used. Here in this analysis shear studs are incorporated on the surface of flanges of the inside steel section.

Design, calibration and validation of a wheel-rail contact force measurement system in V-Track

An innovative downscale test rig called V-Track has been constructed for wheel-rail contact experiments under impact loading conditions. In this paper, a force measurement system termed a dynamometer was developed in V-Track to measure the wheel-rail contact forces. The dynamometer consists of four 3-component piezoelectric force sensors and was mounted between the wheel assembly and the steel frame of V-Track, enabling it to measure the forces transmitted from the wheel-rail interface to the frame. Static tests were first carried out to calibrate the dynamometer in three directions. Then, several tests were performed in V-Track to examine the reliability and validity of the dynamometer for measuring the wheel-rail contact forces under running conditions. Experimental results show that the dynamometer is capable of reliably and accurately measuring these forces. Utilizing the measurement results from the dynamometer, the control of the wheel-rail contact forces in V-Track has also been achieved.

Wear resistance of adaptive arc-PVD Ti-Al-Mo-Ni-N coatings under impact loading and hydroabrasive wear

The behavior of Ti-Al-Mo-Ni-N coatings obtained by arc-PVD deposition under conditions of impact loading and hydroabrasive wear is studied. Nanostructured coatings samples with a thickness of 4 µm with a modulation period of 30 nm and hardness of 45 GPa were obtained. Under impact loading, the coating performs a protective function up to 105 loading cycles of 250 N without opening the substrate, and during hydroabrasive tests, after 3 hours of exposure to a flow at a speed of 8.5 m/s, there is a spot wear on the coating surface, opening minor segments oft the substrate area. It is shown that the introduction of Ni into the Ti-Al-Mo-N system leads to the appearance of coating failure by brittle mechanism with delamination and opening of the substrate under significant loads in the case of impact and hydroabrasive wear.

Assessment of Damage and Residual Load Capacity of the Normal and Retrofitted RC Columns against the Impact Loading

In the current study, the effect of the extreme lateral loading on the square and circular Reinforced Concrete (RC) columns with and without retrofitting was investigated. 3D finite element modeling of the columns and impact loading condition was performed using the ABAQUS/Explicit software. The data of a real scale blast test carried out in our previous study were used to verify the modeling accuracy. The effect of secondary moments due to axial load, different geometrical characteristics of the steel jacket, compressive strength of the concrete, and the longitudinal reinforcement on the explosive capacity of the column and its residual axial strength were studied. Results showed that the circular columns perform better under the sudden lateral pressure than equivalent square ones. Also, steel jacketing increased the explosive capacity of the column, which was more effective in the circular columns than the square ones. The results also indicated that steel jacketing with less buckling capacity had the least improvements on the column capacity. It was found that the effects of the initial axial force in the column were significant on its behavior under explosive loading condition, which should be taken into account in any modeling approaches. In general, the P-δ phenomenon had less effect on the circular columns than the square ones. Also, the use of a high-strength concrete and a higher percentage of longitudinal reinforcement further influenced the retrofitted columns than unretrofited (normal) ones, which was more evident in the circular columns in comparison with square columns.

The effect of boron carbide additive on the low‐velocity impact properties of low‐density foam core composite sandwich structures

AbstractSandwich structures with carbon fiber‐epoxy face sheets and polyvinyl chloride foam core material are known for their high strength and flexural stiffness despite their low weight. However, the structural response, in terms of crush strength, of the particles added sandwich structures are not very well known under impact loading conditions. In this study, the impact resistance and damage characteristics of particle added low weight composite sandwich structures were investigated with a low‐velocity drop weight impact test device. Boron carbide (B4C) particles, which had excellent hardness, thermoelectric, and radiation absorbing characteristics, were used as an additive for the epoxy matrix. For this purpose, 2%, 5%, and 10% by weight additives were mixed into the epoxy matrix and sandwich structures were produced with hand lay‐up followed by vacuum bagging method. All configurations were subjected to low‐velocity drop weight impact test at three different energy levels (10, 17.50, and 25 J). The results obtained from the experiments and the images of the post‐impact damage of the sandwich structures were presented comparatively. According to the test results, configurations containing 10% boron carbide (B4C) additive has shown the best performance in terms of resistance to impact load.

Development of a detailed human neck finite element model and injury risk curves under lateral impact

Advanced neck finite element modeling and development of neck injury criteria are important for the design of optimal neck protection systems in automotive and other environments. They are also important in virtual tests. The objectives of the present study were to develop a detailed finite element model (FEM) of the human neck and couple it to the existing head model, validate the model with kinematic data from legacy human volunteer and human cadaver impact datasets, and derive lateral impact neck injury risk curves using survival analysis from the upper and lower neck forces and moments. The detailed model represented the anatomy of a young adult mid-size male. It included all the cervical and first thoracic vertebrae, intervening discs, upper and lower spinal ligaments, bilateral facet joints, and passive musculature. Material properties were obtained from literature. Frontal, oblique, and lateral impacts to the distal end of the model was applied based on human volunteer and human cadaver experimental data. Corridor and cross-correlation methods were used for validation. The CORrelation and Analysis (CORA) score was used for objective assessments. Forces and moments were obtained at the occipital condyles (OC) and T1, and parametric survival analysis was used to derive injury risk curves to define human neck injury tolerance to lateral impact. The Brier Score Metric (BSM) was used to determine the hierarchical sequence among the injury metrics. The CORA scores for the lateral, frontal, and oblique impact loading conditions were 0.80, 0.91, and 0.87, respectively, for human volunteer data, and the mean score was 0.7 for human cadaver lateral impacts. Injury risk curves along with ±95% confidence intervals are given for all the four biomechanical metrics. The OC shear force was the optimal metric based on the BSM. A force of 1.5 kN was associated with the 50% probability level of AIS3+ neck injury. As a first step, the presented risk curves serve as human tolerance criteria under lateral impact, hitherto not available in published literatures, and they can be used in virtual testing and advancing restraint systems for improving human safety.

In situ deformation characterization of density-graded foams in quasi-static and impact loading conditions

Digital image correlation is utilized to characterize deformation and strain fields developed within the layers of density-graded multilayered foam structures subjected to uniaxial quasi-static and dynamic compression. Three-layered graded structures fabricated from rigid polyurethane foams with nominal densities of 160, 240, and 320 kg/m3 are subjected to quasi-static and dynamic loading. The quasi-static measurements show that, irrespective of the loading direction, the densification is initiated in the lowest density layer and propagates into other layers later once the first layer is fully densified. The deformation mechanisms are different in the case of dynamic loading conditions than quasi-static loading. In the case of dynamic loading, the deformation mechanism depends on the sample orientation relative to the direction of the applied load. In cases where the higher density layers are impacted, the propagation of the elastic and compaction waves leads to partial deformation of the lowest density layer. Sample deformation continues in all layers upon the reflection of the stress waves from the distal end of the sample. A completely different deformation response is observed in cases where the lowest density layer is oriented towards the impact face. A detailed full-field analysis of strain and stress is performed. The mechanisms associated with the formation and propagation of stress waves from the impact end to the samples' distal end are discussed.

Investigation into different numerical methods in predicting the response of aluminosilicate glass under quasi-static and impact loading conditions

This paper presents a comparison of three numerical approaches for modeling brittle materials in both quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions. These methods include the Finite Element Method coupled to Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (FEM-SPH), Discrete Element Method (DEM) and the elastic bond-based Peridynamics (PD). Numerical models for each method were built in the commercial software LS-DYNA. The parameters, associated to the mechanical behavior of aluminosilicate glass, were calibrated for each numerical model by means of experimental tests on material coupons. The experimental results from quasi-static three-point bending tests and ballistic impact tests were utilized for numerical models’ assessment. All methods provide comparable results under quasi-static flexural loading condition and for ballistic impact cases, the numerical results show the particular capability of each approach to capture the projectile residual velocity and the damage morphology of aluminosilicate glass tiles. However, considering all the loading conditions the FEM-SPH method replicates the mechanical response of aluminosilicate glass best.

Numerical Study on Dynamic Performance of End-anchored Rockbolt under Impact Loading

Abstract The numerical modelling for dynamic impact testing of end-anchored rockbolt is established in this paper. The dynamic response of rockbolt under impact loading condition is investigated considering the effects of different impact energy levels, anchoring length, bolt diameter, and material type. The results show that the stress characteristics of the anchoring section in end-anchored rockbolt could be divided into three stages with the impact time: impact initial stage, impact middle stage and impact final stage. The elongation of the rockbolt increases by about 30 mm for every 5kJ increase in impact energy. When the impact energy level increases, the energy absorption rate and maximum plastic strain both increase significantly. The impact energy is mainly dissipated by the plastic deformation of the free section and debonding section of end-anchored rockbolt. The free section plays a buffer role through its elastic deformation when the rockbolt is subjected to impact loading. It is remarkable that the energy absorption rate and anti-impact performance of the end-anchored rockbolt can be improved by increasing the bolt diameter and the bolt material strength.

Thermomechanical tensile properties of deposited Inconel 718 superalloy over a wide range of strain rate and temperature

Nickel-based superalloys show high strength retained also at high temperature and they are widespread used for structural components exposed during services to high temperature combined with high strain rate or impact loading conditions. The objective of this study was the investigation of the plastic flow behaviour of Laser Metal Deposited Nickel-based superalloy Inconel718. The material was manufactured at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China. Specimens with three different heat treatment conditions were investigated: as-deposited, directly aged and aged after homogenization and solution. High strain rate tensile tests were performed on the direct Hopkinson bar setup developed at DYNLab laboratory at Politecnico di Torino. At a nominal strain rate of 1500 s-1the temperature sensitivity was investigated between 20 and 1000°C. An induction heating system was adopted, and the temperature was monitored by thermocouples and infrared pyrometer and high-speed camera. The results showed the materials strength decreases as a function of temperature with a significant drop starting from 800 °C. An asymmetric tension-compression behaviour was found by comparing the results with data in compression. The strain rate influence was investigated at room temperature and very limited or negligible sensitivity was found covering six orders of magnitude in strain rate.

Dynamic stability analysis of rock tunnels subjected to impact loading with varying UCS

The present paper has been carried out to understand the effects of impact loading on the rock tunnels, constructed in different region corresponding to varying unconfined compressive strength (UCS), through finite element method. The UCS of rockmass has substantial role in the stability of rock tunnels under impact loading condition due to falling rocks or other objects. In the present study, Dolomite, Shale, Sandstone, Granite, Basalt, and Quartzite rocks have been taken into consideration for understanding of the effect of UCS that vary from 2.85 MPa to 207.03 MPa. The Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model has been considered in the present study for the nonlinear elastoplastic analysis for all the rocks surrounding the tunnel opening. The geometry and boundary conditions of the model remains constant throughout the analysis and missile has 100 kg of weight. The general hard contact has been assigned to incorporate the interaction between different parts of the model. The present study focuses on studying the deformations in the rock tunnel caused by impacting load due to missile for tunnels having different concrete grade, and steel grade. The broader range of rock strength depicts the strong relationship between the UCS of rock and the extent of damage produced under different impact loading conditions. The energy released during an impact loading simulation shows the variation of safety and serviceability of the rock tunnel.

A comprehensive review on drop weight impact characteristics of bast natural fiber reinforced polymer composites

The performance of fiber-reinforced composite laminates imitating the actual in-service impact loading conditions evaluated through an instrumented drop weight impact testing machine has been reviewed thoroughly. The study of the contact force response during impact is critical in determining the energy absorption capacity of the composites through force–displacement plots. Low-velocity impact (LVI) studies of synthetic fiber composites are extensively studied however, the natural fiber-based composites (NFC) are being studied for impact loading resistance that can offer competitive properties to some of the potential synthetic fiber-based composites (SFC). A comprehensive study on bast natural fiber-based composites is presented, discussing the impact resistance, failure modes, and residual properties towards use in automotive/aerospace applications.

Thermoelastic Investigation of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Composites Using a Drop-Weight Impact Test

Composite materials are becoming more popular in technological applications due to the significant weight savings and strength offered by these materials compared to metallic materials. In many of these practical situations, the structures suffer from drop-impact loads. Materials and structures significantly change their behavior when submitted to impact loading conditions compared to quasi-static loading. The present work is devoted to investigating the thermal process in carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) subjected to a drop test. A novel drop-weight impact test experiment is performed to evaluate parameters specific to 3D composite materials. A strain gauge rosette and infrared thermography are employed to record the kinematic and thermal fields on the composites’ surfaces. This technique is nondestructive and offers an extensive full-field investigation of a material’s response. The combination of strain and infrared thermography data allows a comprehensive analysis of thermoelastic effects in CFRP when subjected to impacts. The experimental results are validated using numerical analysis by developing a MATLAB® code to analyze whether the coupled heat and wave equation phenomenon exists in a two-dimensional polar coordinate system by discretizing through a forward-time central-space (FTCS) finite-difference method (FDM). The results show the coupling has no significant impact as the waves generated due to impact disappears in 0.015 s. In contrast, heat diffusion happens for over a one-second period. This study demonstrates that the heat equation alone governs the CFRP heat flow process, and the thermoelastic effect is negligible for the specific drop-weight impact load.

Mechanical Properties of Brass under Impact and Perforation Tests for a Wide Range of Temperatures: Experimental and Numerical Approach.

The originally performed perforation experiments were extended by compression and tensile dynamic tests reported in this work in order to fully characterize the material tested. Then a numerical model was presented to carry out numerical simulations. The tested material was the common brass alloy. The aim of this numerical study was to observe the behavior of the sample material and to define failure modes under dynamic conditions of impact loading in comparison with the experimental findings. The specimens were rectangular plates perforated within a large range of initial impact velocities V0 from 40 to 120 m/s and in different initial temperatures T0. The temperature range for experiments was T0 = 293 K to 533 K, whereas the numerical analysis covered a wider range of temperatures reaching 923 K. The thermoelasto-viscoplastic behavior of brass alloy was described using the Johnson–Cook constitutive relation. The ductile damage initiation criterion was used with plastic equivalent strain. Both experimental and numerical studies allowed to conclude that the ballistic properties of the structure and the ballistic strength of the sheet plates change with the initial temperature. The results in terms of the ballistic curve VR (residual velocity) versus V0 (initial velocity) showed the temperature effect on the residual kinetic energy and thus on the energy absorbed by the plate. Concerning the failure pattern, the number of petals N was varied depending on the initial impact velocity V0 and initial temperature T0. Preliminary results with regard to temperature increase were recorded. They were obtained using an infrared high-speed camera and were subsequently compared with numerical results.

Design and Fabrication of a Drop Tower Testing Apparatus to Investigate the Impact Behavior of Spinal Motion Segments.

The vertebral column is the second most common fracture site in individuals with high-grade osteoporosis (30-50%). Most of these fractures are caused by falls. This information reveals the importance of considering impact loading conditions of spinal motion segments, while no commercial apparatus is available for this purpose. Therefore, the goal was set to fabricate an impact testing device for the measurement of impact behavior of the biological tissues. In the present study, first, a drop-weight impact testing apparatus was designed and fabricated to record both force and displacement at a sample rate of 100 kHz. A load cell was placed under the sample, and an accelerometer was located on the impactor. Previous devices have mostly measured the force and not the deformation. Thereafter, the effect of high axial compression load was investigated on a biological sample, i.e., the lumbar motion segment, was investigated. To this end, nine ovine segments subjected to vertical impact load were examined using the fabricated device, and the mechanical properties of the lumbar segments were extracted and later compared with quasi-static loading results. The results indicated that the specimen stiffness and failure energy in impact loading were higher than those in the quasi-static loading. In terms of the damage site, fracture mainly occurred in the body of the vertebra during impact loading; although, during quasi-static loading, the fracture took place in the endplates. The present study introduces an inexpensive drop-test device capable of recording both the force and the deformation of the biological specimens when subjected to high-speed impacts. The mechanical properties of the spinal segments have also been extracted and compared with quasi-static loading results.

An Experimental Investigation of the Behavior of Strain-Hardening Cement-Based Composites (SHCC) under Impact Compression and Shear Loading

The ductile behavior of strain-hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) under direct tensile load makes them promising solutions in applications where high energy dissipation is needed, such as in earthquakes, impacts by projectiles, or blasts. However, the superior tensile ductility of SHCC due to multiple cracking does not necessarily point to compressive and shear ductility. As an effort to characterize the behavior of SHCC under impact compressive and shear loading relevant to the aforementioned high-speed loading scenarios, the paper at hand studies the performance of a particular SHCC and its constituent, cement-based matrices using the split-Hopkinson bar method. For compression experiments, cylindrical specimens with a length-to-diameter ratio (l/d) of 1.6 were used. The selected length of the sample led to similar failure modes under quasi-static and impact loading conditions, necessary to a reliable comparison of the observed compressive strengths. The impact experiments were performed in a split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) at a strain rate that reached 110 s−1 at the moment of failure. For shear experiments, a special adapter was developed for a split-Hopkinson tension bar (SHTB). The adapter enabled impact shear experiments to be performed on planar specimens using the tensile wave generated in the SHTB. Results showed dynamic increase factors (DIF) of 2.3 and 2.0 for compressive and shear strength of SHCC, respectively. As compared to the non-reinforced constituent matrix, the absolute value of the compressive strength was lower for the SHCC. Contrarily, under shear loading, the SHCC demonstrated higher shear strength than the non-reinforced matrix.

Calculating changes in fractal dimension of surface cracks to quantify how the dynamic loading rate affects rock failure in deep mining

The split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques are combined to analyze the dynamic compressive failure process of coal samples, and the box fractal dimension is used to quantitatively analyze the dynamic changes in the coal sample cracks under impact load conditions with different loading rates. The experimental results show that the fractal dimension can quantitatively describe the evolution process of coal fractures under dynamic load. During the dynamic compression process, the evolution of the coal sample cracks presents distinct stages. In the crack propagation stage, the fractal dimension increases rapidly with the progress of loading, and in the crack widening stage, the fractal dimension increases slowly with the progress of loading. The initiation of the crack propagation phase of the coal samples gradually occurs more quickly with increasing loading rate; the initial cracks appear earlier. At the same loading time point, when the loading rate is greater, the fractal dimension of the cracks observed in the coal sample is greater.

Investigation of damage to thick composite laminates under low-velocity impact and frequency-sweep vibration loading conditions

A detailed investigation of damage and failure mechanisms of composite laminates under low-velocity impact (LVI) by experimental tests and numerical modeling is presented. Five impact energy levels were investigated on composite laminates by drop-weight tests. Permanent indentations were measured, and delamination areas of each interface induced by each LVI event were captured using an ultrasonic C-scan. The 3D volume elements with a user-defined, material-based finite element model (FEM) has been applied to predict the LVI event considering damage modes, including intra-ply damage and inter-ply damage. The results of the FEM were found to agree well with experimental observations. Internal damage of the laminate during the impact process was analyzed. For thick laminates, the initiation of damage is observed at the first layer, and then spreads from the impact surface to the back, leading to a pine-type damage pattern as the thickness increases. Frequency-sweep vibration tests of composite laminates subjected to LVI events were studied under a “fixed ends” boundary condition. Our results show that it is reasonable to use frequency-sweep vibration experiments to evaluate the damage of laminates subjected to LVI events.