Material PropertiesExperimental characterization of dynamic behaviour of gelatin-based material using DIC

In this paper, the dynamic response of gelatin-based soft material under impact loading is investigated. The dynamic tests are principally performed by the classical SHPB (Split Hopkinson Pressure Bars) technique. However, due to the very low mechanical impedance of the specimen compared with the Hopkinson bars, the feeble impact forces are measured by highly sensitive piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) pressure sensors instead of SHPB measurement system. The PVDF pressure sensors are placed on the interfaces between the specimen and the bars. During the impact test, the non-equilibrium stress state and inhomogeneous strain fields are developed in the specimen; a digital image correlation (DIC) technique is proposed to identify the inhomogeneous displacement fields using high speed photography. A non-parametric approach based on the DIC technique is developed to deduce the transient stress fields in the longitudinal and transverse directions from the displacement fields measured by DIC. The validation of the calculated stress fields is performed by comparing them with the stress measurements from the PVDF pressure sensor at the bottom end of the specimen. Furthermore, stress-strain response is carried out using this approach throughout the specimen. It is clearly shown that the average highest strain rate varies with position in the specimen. This lead to multiple stress-strain relations determined at different strain rates by only one impact test. The significant strain rate sensitivity is observed at the tested rate range from 81/s to 269/s. Under compression loading, the axial stress state is developed as a simple compression only in the central part of the specimen due to the friction at the interfaces between the specimen and the bars. According to the calculated results based on movement of “long waves”, the region of the simple compression stress state in the central part of the specimen is localized. It is observed that the axial stress is much more important than the transverse stress in the central part and this confirms the assumption of uni-axial compression stress state in the specimen.