Development and validation of a Hopkinson bar for hazardous materials

Abstract

Background: There are a variety of approaches that can be employed for Hopkinson bar compression testing and there is no standard procedure. Objectives: A Split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) testing technique is presented which has been specifically developed for the characterisation of hazardous materials such as radioactive metals. This new SHPB technique is validated and a comparison is made with results obtained at another laboratory. Methods: Compression SHPB tests are performed on identical copper specimens using the new SHPB procedures at Imperial College London and confirmatory measurements are performed using the well-established configuration at the University of Oxford. The experiments are performed at a temperature of 20 °C and 200 °C. Imperial heat the specimens externally before being inserted into the test position (ex-situ heating) and Oxford heat the specimens whilst in contact with the pressure bars (in-situ heating). For the ex-situ case, specimen temperature homogeneity is investigated both experimentally and by simulation. Results: Stress-strain curves were generally consistent at both laboratories but sometimes discrepancies fell outside of the inherent measurement uncertainty range of the equipment, with differences mainly attributed to friction, loading pulse shapes and pulse alignment techniques. Small metallic specimens are found to be thermally homogenous even during contact with the pressure bars. Conclusion: A newly developed Hopkinson bar for hazardous materials is shown to be effective for characterising metals under both ambient and elevated temperature conditions.