Mechanics of Taylor impact testing of polycarbonate

Abstract

The deformation of polymers under high-rate loading conditions is a governing factor in their use in impact-resistant applications, such as protective shields, safety glass windows and transparent armor. In this paper, Taylor impact experiments were conducted to examine the mechanical behavior of polycarbonate (PC), under conditions of high strain rate ($10 5 s À1 ) and inhomogeneous deformation. High-speed photography was used to monitor the progression of deformation within the sample. A recently developed three-dimensional large strain rate-dependent elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model which describes the high-rate behavior of glassy polymers was used together with the ABAQUS/Explicit finiteelement code to simulate several Taylor impact conditions. The simulation results are compared directly with experimental images for a range in initial rod dimensions and velocities. Final deformed shapes are found to correspond with those obtained experimentally, demonstrating the ability to predict complex inhomogeneous deformation events during very high-rate impact loading scenarios. The dependence of the observed behaviors on the various features of the polymer stress-strain behavior are presented in detail revealing the roles of strain softening and strain hardening in governing the manner in which deformation progresses in a polymer during dynamic inhomogeneous loading events.

High Strain Rate Mechanics of Polymers: A Review

“…The complex loading in compression of the Taylor test, where stress, strain rate, and final strain vary within the specimen makes it an ideal test for validating constitutive models, where the complex loading is thought to provide a more robust test of the model [36]. In polymers, the test has been used to understand the behavior of the materials under complex loading for modeling efforts [108][109][110][111][112][113] and to elucidate phase transitions in the polymeric materials [12,114].…”

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Perforation of Thin Polycarbonate Plate by Projectiles of Different Nose Shape

“…A number of investigations have been carried out to characterize the static/dynamic flow and failure properties of polycarbonate structures viz: Ravi-Chandar (1995); Rittel et al (1997); Rittel and Levin (1998); Rittel (1999Rittel ( , 2000; Moisa et al (2005); and Sarva et al (2007). The penetration behavior of PC structures has been analysed by Wright et al (1992), based on quasi-static deep penetration tests using circular cylindrical hardened steel punches.…”

Thermoforming process of amorphous polymeric sheets: Modeling and finite element simulations

“…1 We note that there exist other models in the literature, which may describe the behavior in a better way, particularly for temperature above T g and on a wide range of strain rates. 10,11 However, for simplicity we use the modified Argon's model, which shows fairly good results to moderate strain rates. [6][7][8] Network stress and flow: Resistance B…”