Design, development, and calibration of split Hopkinson pressure bar system for Dynamic material characterization of concrete

Split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) system is significantly used for dynamic material characterization in the range of strain rates 102–104 s-1; however, there is no standard design methodology or readily available technique for the development of this apparatus. The objective of this study is to present a detailed design, development and calibration of SHPB apparatus for dynamic material characterization of concrete in compression. The calibration of the loading and bar components has been presented with the help of experimental results and validated following an analytical approach for one-dimensional stress wave propagation. The experimental pulse duration, 124.5 microsecond, and elastic wave speed, 4820 m/s, was measured with 2% deviation from the analytical results. Under three different impact velocities, a minimum 1.09% and maximum 4.14% decrement was observed in the incident wave as compared to analytical formulation. The recorded strain signals were captured in the transmission bar with a decrement of 1, 3, and 3.3% in peak strain when compared to the incident bar, at 4.5, 4.9, and 5.7 m/s impact velocities. The incident and transmission bars had almost identical wave characteristics demonstrating that the bar system has been perfectly and precisely aligned, and almost complete wave transfer is seen to have occurred. Experiments performed on M35 concrete specimens using the developed SHPB setup have been presented and discussed. The results demonstrated that the developed SHPB setup is capable to provide accurate results for the dynamic material characterization of concrete at high strain rate loading.