On the Determination of Stress, Strain, Strain-Rate Relations From Dynamic Beam Tests

Abstract

A direct method is proposed for the determination of stress, strain, strain-rate relations from dynamic flexural tests in which bending moment is given in terms of curvature and curvature rate, or any other suitable deformation parameter and deformation rate parameter. The method is demonstrated by application to published experimental results. It is found that the stress, strain, strain-rate relations that are derived from the flexural test data are in significantly better accord with uniaxial data on the same material, than moment, curvature, curvature-rate relations predicted from the uniaxial data correspond with the experimental results. It appears that the process of reducing flexural data to uniaxial relations by the method proposed is much less sensitive than that of predicting flexural response from uniaxial data. Since flexural tests have many experimental advantages over uniaxial tests this analytical technique seems to open up possibilities for improved dynamic testing methods.