Publications

Results 126–142 of 142
Skip to search filters

Stress wave propagation in a composite beam subjected to transverse impact

Song, Bo S.; Jin, Huiqing J.; Lu, Wei-Yang L.

Composite materials, particularly fiber reinforced plastic composites, have been extensively utilized in many military and industrial applications. As an important structural component in these applications, the composites are often subjected to external impact loading. It is desirable to understand the mechanical response of the composites under impact loading for performance evaluation in the applications. Even though many material models for the composites have been developed, experimental investigation is still needed to validate and verify the models. It is essential to investigate the intrinsic material response. However, it becomes more applicable to determine the structural response of composites, such as a composite beam. The composites are usually subjected to out-of-plane loading in applications. When a composite beam is subjected to a sudden transverse impact, two different kinds of stress waves, longitudinal and transverse waves, are generated and propagate in the beam. The longitudinal stress wave propagates through the thickness direction; whereas, the propagation of the transverse stress wave is in-plane directions. The longitudinal stress wave speed is usually considered as a material constant determined by the material density and Young's modulus, regardless of the loading rate. By contrast, the transverse wave speed is related to structural parameters. In ballistic mechanics, the transverse wave plays a key role to absorb external impact energy [1]. The faster the transverse wave speed, the more impact energy dissipated. Since the transverse wave speed is not a material constant, it is not possible to be calculated from stress-wave theory. One can place several transducers to track the transverse wave propagation. An alternative but more efficient method is to apply digital image correlation (DIC) to visualize the transverse wave propagation. In this study, we applied three-pointbending (TPB) technique to Kolsky compression bar to facilitate dynamic transverse loading on a glass fiber/epoxy composite beam. The high-speed DIC technique was employed to study the transverse wave propagation.

More Details
TYPE Conference YEAR 2010
OSTI

Compressive behavior of fine sand

Song, Bo S.

The compressive mechanical response of fine sand is experimentally investigated. The strain rate, initial density, stress state, and moisture level are systematically varied. A Kolsky bar was modified to obtain uniaxial and triaxial compressive response at high strain rates. A controlled loading pulse allows the specimen to acquire stress equilibrium and constant strain-rates. The results show that the compressive response of the fine sand is not sensitive to strain rate under the loading conditions in this study, but significantly dependent on the moisture content, initial density and lateral confinement. Partially saturated sand is more compliant than dry sand. Similar trends were reported in the quasi-static regime for experiments conducted at comparable specimen conditions. The sand becomes stiffer as initial density and/or confinement pressure increases. The sand particle size become smaller after hydrostatic pressure and further smaller after dynamic axial loading.

More Details
TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2010
OSTIDOI

Size Effect in Continuum Modeling

Foulk, James W.; Connelly, Kevin C.; Song, Bo S.; Yang, Nancy Y.; Lu, Wei-Yang L.

The mechanical properties of some materials (Cu, Ni, Ag, etc.) have been shown to develop strong dependence on the geometric dimensions, resulting in a size effect. Several theories have been proposed to model size effects, but have been based on very few experiments conducted at appropriate scales. Some experimental results implied that size effects are caused by increasing strain gradients and have been used to confirm many strain gradient theories. On the other hand, some recent experiments show that a size effect exists in the absence of strain gradients. This report describes a brief analytical and experimental study trying to clarify the material and experimental issues surrounding the most influential size-effect experiments by Fleck et al (1994). This effort is to understand size effects intended to further develop predictive models.

More Details
TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2008
OSTIDOI
Results 126–142 of 142
Results 126–142 of 142