Scaling impacted structures when the prototype and the model are made of different materials

By properly applying scaling laws, it is possible to infer the behaviour of a structure from the response of a similar model whose dimensions are scaled by a factor beta. In some cases, however, e.g. in the case of strain rate sensitive structures under severe dynamic loads, these laws become distorted, severely limiting this approach. In this article, a methodology for the correction of this distortion is explored for the case when the structure and the model are made of different materials. It is shown that the behaviour of a structure, say, made of mild steel, can be forecast from the response of a model, say, made of aluminium. The technique here detailed is shown to be valid for simple structures subject to axial and transverse impact loads. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.