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IOP PUBLISHING MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 (2009) 065702 (5pp) doi:10.1088/0957-0233/20/6/065702

A measurement of wave propagation in

the split Hopkinson pressure bar
C R Siviour
Department of Engineering Science, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PJ, UK

Received 28 January 2009, in final form 5 April 2009

Published 18 May 2009
Online at stacks.iop.org/MST/20/065702

Abstract
This paper presents results from optical and analytical measurements of stress wave
propagation in a rod of PMMA. The rod is loaded between the incident and transmitter bars of
a split Hopkinson pressure bar. Displacements in the rod are measured using high speed
photography with digital image correlation. Independent calculations of strain and
displacement in the rod are made from the waves measured at the Hopkinson bar gauge
stations, from which all required material parameters (apart from density) can be calculated by
applying standard wave propagation theory. The paper finishes with a discussion of how these
measurements will be developed in the future.

Keywords: split Hopkinson pressure bar, high speed photography, speckle metrology

1. Introduction One method for increasing the information about elastic

This split Hopkinson pressure bar is a standard apparatus for
measuring the mechanical response of materials to high strain
rate loading [1]. Instrumented rods are used as waveguides
to propagate a stress wave through a specimen of the material
of interest. The stress waves in the bars are measured using
strain gauges placed on their surface, and a standard analysis
is generally used to calculate the forces and velocities at the
bar–specimen interfaces, from which the average stress and
strain in the specimen can be calculated as functions of time.
An important consideration when measuring high rate
properties of materials, especially those with a low sound
speed, is the well-described requirement for a specimen
to reach mechanical equilibrium before the results of an
experiment may be regarded as valid [2]. The specimen
is loaded from one end with a stress wave, which imposes
a deformation speed of, e.g., 10 m s−1 on that end of the
specimen. The wave oscillates a number of times within
the specimen, each time increasing the specimen stress in a
stepwise manner (figure 1). Eventually enough oscillations
occur so that the stress does not vary significantly with
position in the specimen; the specimen is now in quasi-
static equilibrium, although deformed at a high strain rate.
Equilibrium is required because average specimen properties
are calculated and because, until equilibrium is achieved,
the forces measured in the bars are not the same as those
experienced by the specimen.
properties that is obtained from the Hopkinson bar might be
to avoid equilibrium altogether and deliberately load long
specimens in order to measure their response to travelling
waves of rapid rise times. The increased sophistication
of digital high speed photography and wide availability of
speckle metrology allow displacements in such specimens
to be calculated accurately and rapidly; a similar approach,
using photoelasticity, was used by Flynn and Frocht in their
investigation of Saint Venant’s principle [3]. This paper
explores such a measurement and provides a comparison to
the values expected from wave analysis.
2. Experimental details
The experiment reported here involves the optical
measurement of the displacement due to a single stress wave
propagating through a rod of PMMA. The displacement was
measured optically using high speed photography and digital
image cross correlation. A number of previous authors have
described the application of image correlation techniques to
Hopkinson bar experiments [4–9]. Loading was provided by
a split Hopkinson pressure bar system, with measurements of
the input, reflected and transmitted waves provided from strain
gauge stations via a National Instruments data acquisition
system. These waves were used in the analysis described
below to calculate the wavespeed, impedance and modulus
of the specimen; then the transmission coefficient between

0957-0233/09/065702+05$30.00 1 © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 (2009) 065702
Figure 1. Lagrange diagram of the stress waves in a Hopkinson bar
specimen. Points A and B indicate the start and end of the region of
interest for the optical analysis in this paper.
the input bar and specimen; and finally the stress, strain,
displacement and strain rate profiles in the specimen. The
Hopkinson bar used has steel bars of diameter 15 mm (area
Ab = 176.7 × 10−6 m2 ), length 500 mm, wavespeed cb =
4830 m s−1 and density ρ b = 8235 kg m−3 .
Figure 1 shows a Lagrange diagram for the stress waves
in a Hopkinson bar system and indicates in the caption the
region of interest for the optical record. In order to record
the passage of a single wave, photographs must be taken
before the reflection off the specimen–bar interface at B. It is
advantageous, therefore, to have a specimen which is long and
has a low wavespeed, to maximize the time span of the region
of interest. For this reason, PMMA specimens of 30 mm
in length were used; these will later be shown to have a
wavespeed of 1.38 mm μs−1 . Images were acquired with
a SIM16 ultra high speed camera, using an interframe time of
2.5 μs (between the start of subsequent frames) and an
exposure time of 0.5 μs. A further advantage of PMMA
specimens is that they are transparent; a speckle pattern was
spray painted onto the specimen surface, and the specimens
were backlit, giving a good contrast and efficient use of the
available light (see figure 2). To further aid the speckle
analysis, specimens were cuboids of section 4.92 × 4.97 mm2 :
they present a flat face to the camera.
It should be noted that these steps were taken to make
this trial experiment as straightforward as possible. In fact,
the high speed camera can be triggered very precisely from a
strain gauge mounted on the Hopkinson bar, and there would
have been no difficulty in reducing the interframe time to
0.5 μs, which would allow a material with a wavespeed of
7 mm μs−1 to be visualized without any alteration of the
geometrical set-up. This brings the technique into the range
of essentially all metals, polymers and composites.
For later calculation purposes, a scaling for the images
of 44.1 pixels mm−1 was measured. The total image was
1280 pixels wide and 960 pixels high, and the specimen
was 4.92 mm and 217 pixels high in this image. All time
2
C R Siviour
Figure 2. Example photograph from the sequence of high speed
images of the PMMA rod. The input bar is visible on the right-hand
side of the picture and the output bar is not visible. The arrows
indicate the displacement of the specimen in the x direction. In
order to produce the graphs reported below, the displacements were
averaged over the five measurements at each position along the
specimen length.
0 0
0.5
1
Transmitted Force/kN
Incident Force/kN
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
0 50 100 150 200 250
4
Time/μs
Figure 3. Incident and transmitted stress waves time shifted
respectively to the input and output ends of the specimen. Spikes on
the signals are due to the monitor signal.
correlation between the stress waves in the bars and the high
speed photographs was performed using a ‘monitor’ signal
provided by the camera, which shows the timing of the images
and is recorded alongside the strain gauge signals on the data
acquisition system.
The specimen was loaded using an input stress wave as
shown in figure 3; the resultant transmitted wave is also shown.
The input wave is equivalent to an interface speed, u1 , of
∼10 m s−1 . It should be noted that all waves will be described
as travelling from right to left, since this means that the
orientation of a stress–time plot is the same as the orientation
of a stress–position plot for the same wave at a specific time;
the two plots are interchangeable via the wavespeed cb or cs in
the bar or specimen respectively.
3. Results, data analysis and discussion
3.1. Optical analysis
Sixteen images of the specimen were taken, and the algorithm
described in [10, 11] was used to calculate the displacement of
the specimen in each. The subimage size used was 64 pixels,
and measurements were made every 32 pixels. A standard
representation for the results of speckle analysis is a quiver
plot; figure 2 shows such a plot for a frame taken when the
Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 (2009) 065702 C R Siviour

0.3 Time/μs
0 10 20 30 40 50
0.25
0.3
Displacement /mm

0.2 0.25

Displacement/mm
0.15 0.2

0.1
0.15

0.05
0.1
0
30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Position/mm 0.05

Figure 4. Displacement–position plots for the 16 frames taken of the

experiment on PMMA. Each line indicates data from one frame and
the arrow therefore indicates the direction of increasing time. The
crosses indicate each independent displacement value calculated.
stress wave is a little less than half-way along the specimen.
The displacement on the left-hand side of the specimen is
zero, on the right-hand side the displacement varies linearly
with position, and in the middle there is a small transition
region, corresponding to the rise time of the input wave.
Qualitatively, this result is as would be expected as a stress
wave of constant amplitude and finite rise time propagates
through the specimen. The plot in figure 4 shows displacement
as a function of initial position along the specimen in each of
the 16 frames; each value is the mean of appropriate quivers, as
indicated in the caption to figure 2. The wave propagates along
the specimen and the strain behind the wavefront, indicated by
the gradient of the displacement–position plot, is constant. The
distance between the curves should be equal to the wavespeed
in the specimen multiplied by 2.5 μs.
The specimen wavespeed can be calculated using the
signal from the output bar. The first plateau in this signal
corresponds to the wave propagated into the output bar at B (in
figure 1) and the second plateau contains a further contribution
from the wave propagated at C; the time between these waves
corresponds to twice the transit time in the specimen. In
this case, the time is 43.6 μs; using a specimen length of
30 mm gives a wavespeed cs = 1.38 mm μs−1 . It should be
noted that this is the least accurate measurement in the whole
experimental procedure. This is partly due to the dispersion
of the wave in the specimen, which makes calculation of the
travel time less accurate than would otherwise be the case,
but also because the length of the specimen changes during
the passage of the wave. Whilst this second error can be
corrected, the effect is of the order 0.02 mm μs−1 , and an
uncorrected value was used in the current calculations.
Once the wavespeed has been calculated, it is instructive
to time shift the results from the speckle analysis in figure 4 to
give the curves in figure 5. Each curve is shifted by n × 2.5 ×
1.38 mm, where n = 1:16 is the frame number, to produce a
master displacement–position or, equivalently, displacement–
time plot. Thus, figure 5 also quantifies the interdependence of
plots as a function of time and plots as a function of position.
0
80 60 40 20 0
Position/mm
Figure 5. Time-shifted displacement–position plots for the 16
frames, showing the good agreement between the frames and also
producing a master displacement–position or displacement–time
curve.
The translation between time and position is given by the
equation x − x0 = cs (t0 − t), where x0 and t0 are respectively
the reference position and the reference time. Therefore, the
plot in figure 5 can be thought of as the displacement of a
specific position of the specimen as a function of time or as
the displacement of a long rod at a specific time as a function
of position.
3.2. Wave analysis
It is also possible to derive figure 4 independently, using
the stress waves measured in the Hopkinson bars. From the
wavespeed derived above, and the measured specimen density,
ρ s = 1177 kg m−3 , the specimen modulus can be calculated,
Es = ρ s cs 2 = 2.24 GPa; the area is also known: As = 24.45 ×
10−6 m2 . Using these, and the equivalent values for the
Hopkinson bar, the stress transmission coefficient from the
bar to specimen can be calculated:
2ρs cs Ab
Tb−s = = 0.081. (1)
ρb cb Ab + ρs cs As
Thus, multiplication of the incident wave by the stress
transmission coefficient gives the stress wave that propagates
through the specimen, again as a function of position or time.
Dividing by the modulus gives the strain profile (figure 6)
which is a key plot as it can be integrated with respect to
position to give displacement or differentiated with respect to
time to give the strain rate.
Initially, integrating with respect to position gives the
displacement profile in figure 7; this is in excellent agreement
with data from the speckle analysis—two independent
measurements have therefore given the same result for both
the specimen sound speed and the specimen displacement.
Differentiation of the strain profile is dealt with in the following
section.

3
Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 (2009) 065702 C R Siviour

0 0

Strain Rate/s
Strain/με

80 60 40 20 0
80 60 40 20 0 Position/mm
Position/mm
Figure 8. Strain-rate–position plot obtained by differentiating the
Figure 6. Strain–position plot calculated using the input stress wave curve in figure 6.
and the calculated transmission coefficient.

Apart from being an interesting result, the reader may

0.3 ask what the benefit is of these observations? As discussed
in section 1, there is currently no experimental technique that
0.25 can be used to calculate the high strain rate modulus of a
material. In the above experiment, the modulus was calculated
from the wavespeed; however, the analysis so far has ignored
Displacement/mm

0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0 reflection coefficient at the bar–specimen interface is 0.99:
80 60 40 20 0
Position/mm
Figure 7. Comparison of the master displacement–position plot
from the speckle measurements and the displacement–position plot
calculated by integrating the curve in figure 6.
3.3. Discussion
The results described above show how optical and analytical
methods can be used to calculate the displacement–
position/time profile of a stress wave in a long specimen loaded
dynamically.
The Hopkinson bar output gauge signal, combined
with an independent density measurement, provides enough
information to calculate the wavespeed and hence the modulus
of the specimen material. These calculated values are used
to obtain the transmission coefficient at the bar–specimen
interface, in turn used to calculate the stress wave propagated
into the specimen. Validation of the measurements is provided
by a comparison of the calculated displacement to that
measured, independently, by the speckle analysis, which also
provides an independent confirmation of the wavespeed.
the information carried in the reflected wave at (referring to
figure 1) A and in the magnitudes of the transmitted wave
at B and C. In principle, both the sum of the incident and
reflected waves, or the first two steps of the transmitted wave,
can be used to provide further calculations of the magnitude
of force in the specimen as the wave passes through it. With
optical measurements providing an independent measure of
strain, another calculation of the modulus is made possible.
However, in the experimental configuration used here, the
the magnitude of the reflected wave is expected to be 99%
of that of the input wave. The force on the specimen end is
given by the difference in magnitude between the incident and
reflected waves, but this difference is comparable to the error
(about 0.5%) in the force measurements; therefore, in future
experiments lower impedance bars and a larger specimen area
will be used to decrease the magnitude of the reflected wave
and investigate this further.
But what of the strain rate? If a trapezoidal stress wave
of constant amplitude, and finite rise time, passes through an
initially unstressed material, the strain in front of the wave
is constant (zero) and the strain behind the wavefront is also
constant (ε); the strain rate is given by ε divided by the rise
time. For a real wave, such as that in figure 6, the instantaneous
strain rate is given by the derivative (figure 8). This is not
constant, but future research will examine the use of pulse
shapers to load specimens with better defined waves.
This technique thus opens up challenges and
opportunities, which are the subject of ongoing investigations
and will be reported in future publications. If pulse shaping
can be used to give an almost trapezoidal stress wave, the
rising portion of that wave can be used to calculate a high

4
Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 (2009) 065702
rate modulus at a constant strain rate. Further, continuous
measurement of the strain profile as the almost flat top of
the applied wave propagates past a point in the rod opens
the possibility of measuring high speed relaxation phenomena
in materials. This will require longer specimens and high
speed cameras with more frames; however, the long thin
specimen geometry lends itself to the use of modern CCD high
speed cameras, which can acquire letterbox-shaped images at
framing rates approaching one million per second.
4. Conclusions
This paper demonstrates measurements of displacement and
strain in a long polymer rod loaded at one end by a stress
wave. The specimen is loaded using a split Hopkinson
pressure bar, which gives information about the waves
that are produced by the bar–specimen interactions, from
which, in turn, information about the waves within the
specimen may be calculated. Further calculations give
strain–position and displacement–position information in the
specimen. Displacement–position information can also be
obtained from digital image cross correlation applied to high
speed photographs of the event. Comparison of the data shows
good agreement within the precision of the two measurements.
Future research will examine how these measurements can
be improved and applied further to investigation of material
properties at high rates of strain.
Acknowledgments
The SIM16 High Speed Camera used in this research was
provided by the EPSRC Instrument Loan Pool. The author is
particularly grateful to A Walker for his advice and support
whilst using this camera. The research was also enabled by
the provision of analysis software by M Sjödahl of Luleå
University of Technology, Sweden.
C R Siviour
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