The Hopkinson split bar, instrumented with both a set of piezoelectric X-cut quartz crystal pressure transducers and a set of strain gauge transducers, was developed to enable investigation of the stress—strain—strain rate behavior in compression of brittle and/or low strength materials. The approach was applied to the study of a brittle, strain rate sensitive, polycrystalline, organic solid, and for purposes of comparison a relatively ductile, highly filled polymer. Comparison and discussion of data from the two materials illustrate the advantage of the technique to obtain valid, more accurate stress and modulus information at strain levels significantly lower than those satisfactorily obtained by using the split bar instrumented with strain gauges alone.

No abstract