Impact compression and tensile testing by means of a Charpy pendulum

Abstract

Mathematical modelling and virtual testing of components and structures represent a useful and economical tool for design and safety assessment. The so called basic mechanical properties which can be found in material standards are not relevant in cases where the real service conditions differ from those applied during testing. Thus e.g. mechanical behaviour at higher strain rates can be interesting for the car components when the simulation of crash situations is used during structure development. The dynamic compression tests are usually performed by means of drop towers, dynamic tensile tests by means of high speed hydraulic testing machines or the Hopkinson bar method. At the Mechanical Testing Laboratory of the SKODA Research Inst. in Pilsen, Czech Republic, an instrumentation of a Charpy pendulum testing machine was realised in order for it to be possible to perform dynamic compression and tensile tests. A new striking tup and load measurement system were designed and calibrated. At the same time, new software was developed which makes it possible to evaluate the test force-deformation record. The correctness of the instrumentation and software was verified by comparison of measured and evaluated values of energies and deformations. A very good agreement was obtained. An international round-robin within the framework of the ESIS TC5-Subcommittee on Mechanical testing at intermediate strain rates is realised at present.