Determination of dynamic material properties using laser measurement technique in split Hopkinson pressure bar

The split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) is a commonly used technique to measure the stress-strain of materials at high strain rate. Using the strain records in the input and output bars, the average stress-strain and strain rate in the sample can be calculated by SHPB formulas based on the one-dimensional wave propagation theory. The accuracy of a SHPB test is based on this assumption. In this paper, first a laser measuring system is designed, implemented, and calibrated in order to obtain the dynamic properties of different materials using split Hopkinson pressure bar test. In this method which is a non-contact one, the displacements of bar/sample interfaces are measured directly using a laser extensometer technique, by using the provided equations, in addition to the strain, the stress of the tested sample can be calculated. Moreover, the operation of the method is evaluated using numerical simulation. Aluminum 7075 and copper C10200 samples were studied to evaluate the implemented measurement method. The comparison with other measurement methods shows good agreement of numerical and experimental results. Moreover, since the one-dimensional wave propagation is not used directly in this method, we show the proposed method can be used even with shorter pressure bars which can reduce the cost of manufacturing and maintenance of the SHPB apparatus.