Review of experimental techniques for high rate deformation and shock studies

A variety of techniques used to obtain the mechanical properties of materials at high rates of strain (greater than or equal to10 s(-1)) are summarised. These include dropweight machines, split Hopkinson pressure bars, Taylor impact and shock loading by plate impact. High-speed photography, particularly when used in association with optical techniques, is a key area and recent advances and applications to studies of ballistic impact are discussed. More comprehensive bibliographies and a fuller discussion of the history may be found in earlier reviews published by us in 1994, 1998 and 2001 (J Phys IV France 4 (C8) (1994) 3; Review of experimental techniques for high rate deformation studies, Proceedings of the Acoustics and Vibration Asia '98, Acoustics and Vibration Asia 98 Conference, Singapore, 1998; Review of experimental techniques for high rate deformation and shock studies, New Experimental Methods in Material Dynamics and Impact, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Warsaw, Poland, 2001). (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.