A Laser-Doppler Anemometry (LDA) was adopted to measure the velocity history of a projectile striking on an elastic-plastic clamped beam of rectangular crosssection. The acceleration history was obtained by differentiating the polynomial with respect to time and therefore the contact force history was obtained by multiplying the acceleration and the projectile mass [1]. In order to estimate the impact-contact process, a theoretical model is proposed, in which the indentation process, recovery process and separation process during the elastic-plastic contact history between the beam and the projectile are carefully considered. The experimental results are then compared with the estimates from the theoretical model. It is demonstrated that the theoretical model is capable of providing a good estimate to the contact force history for a beam subjected to a projectile impact.
IntroductionIn study of impact on elastic-plastic structures, the impact force history is one of the most important objectives for researchers to achieve, because the force history is usually vital in evaluating the dynamic response and failure behavior of those structures such as pipes in nuclear power plant, helicopters and vehicles etc. However, unlike the displacement measurement, the impact-contact force history is difficult to be measured since the acceleration of the projectile is the double differentiation of the displacement with respect to time. Even a very small error in the displacement measurement may result in a significant difference of the Engineering Plasticity and Impact Dynamics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by MONASH UNIVERSITY on 04/23/17. For personal use only.