Murat Vural
Associate Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Dynamic Testing Laboratory (DTL)
The Dynamic Testing Lab (DTL) has been recently established with high-speed diagnostic and data acquisition systems for high-strain-rate constitutive testing and impact failure characterization of materials. The new DTL complements existing servo-hydraulic, drop tower and high temperature testing facilities in the MMAE department's solid mechanics labs and provide the capability to investigate mechanical response of solids in a wide range of strain rates (from 10-4 to 104 s-1) and temperatures (up to 1200 oF), and under both uniaxial and multiaxial loading conditions.
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Upper left: Modified split
Hopkinson (Kolsky) Pressure Bar setup for high-strain-rate compressive
testing. Left: Infrared detector and gold-coated reflective infrared optic system for high-speed, non-contact temperature measurement during high-rate deformation process. Top: An aluminum foam specimen before testing. Input and output bars are made of 1" diameter 7075 aluminum alloy and transmission signal is measured by a piezoelectric crystal disk for enhanced resolution. |
The experimental tools in the DTL include a compression split Hopkinson (Kolsky) pressure bar (SHPB) setup with interchangeable 1", 3/4" and 1/2" diameter bars made of Al 7075 alloy, Maraging C350 steel and Inconel 718 alloy to enable low-strength, high-strength and high-temperature material testing, respectively. The SHPB setup is coupled with a dedicated high bandwidth (5-25 MHz) and high resolution (12-bit) digital storage oscilloscope to record data at high sampling rates (typically 10-100 MS/s) through various transducers such as strain gages, piezoelectric (Quartz) gages as well as thermocouples, photodiodes and infrared detectors. The capability of DTL will be eventually expanded through the construction of tension and torsion Hopkinson bars.
A single-stage high velocity gas gun is also being developed to reach striker velocities around 1000 m/s for direct impact and penetration experiments.
To be UPDATED soon!!!
last modified: 12-May-2003