This article reviews high strain rate compression and tension test methods with a focus on the general principles, advantages, and limitations of each test method. The compression test methods are cam plastometer test, drop tower compression test, the Hopkinson bar in compression, and rod impact (Taylor) test. The flyer plate impact test, expanding ring test, split-Hopkinson bar in tension, and a test using a rotating wheel used for high strain rate tension are also discussed.

This article describes a method for determining the dynamic indentation response of metals and ceramics. This method, based on split Hopkinson pressure bar testing, can determine rate-dependent characteristics of metals and ceramics at moderate strain rates. For example, dynamic indentation testing reveals a significant effect of loading rates on the hardness and the induced plastic zone size in metals and on the hardness and induced crack sizes of brittle materials. The article also explains the rebound and pendulum methods for dynamic hardness testing.

This article describes the techniques involved in measuring the high-strain-rate stress-strain response of materials using a split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB). It focuses on the generalized techniques applicable to all SHPBs, whether compressive, tensile, or torsion. The article discusses the methods of collecting and analyzing compressive high-rate mechanical property data. A review of the critical experimental variables that must be controlled to yield valid and reproducible high-strain-rate stress-strain data is also included. Comparisons and contrasts to the differences invoked when using a tensile Hopkinson bar in terms of loading technique, sample design, and stress-state stability, are discussed.

This article illustrates the momentum-trapping scheme in the incident bar and stress-reversal technique which is used to change the strain rate during the course of Hopkinson bar compression or tension experiments. It describes techniques to recover the sample after it has been subjected to a cycle of compression followed by tension or tension followed by compression with illustrations. The article provides information on the recovery dynamic testing of hard materials such as ceramics and ceramic composites and explains high-temperature dynamic recovery tests. The recovery of the sample that has been subjected to a single stress pulse allows a number of interesting applications, a few of which are reviewed.

High strain rate testing is important for many engineering structural applications and metalworking operations. This article describes various methods for high strain rate testing. Several methods have been developed, starting with the pioneering work of John Hopkinson and his son, Bertram Hopkinson. Based on these contributions and also on an important paper by R.M. Davies, H. Kolsky invented the split-Hopkinson pressure bar, which allows the deformation of a sample of a ductile material at a high strain rate, while maintaining a uniform uniaxial state of stress within the sample.

This article addresses the specialized aspects required to accurately quantify the behavior of soft materials, including polymers and polymeric composites, using the split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB). It details some of the specialized SHPB techniques that facilitate testing soft materials. These techniques include the data-reduction techniques and assumptions required to use polymer pressure bars, the importance of sample-size considerations to polymer testing, and temperature-control methodologies to measure the high-strain-rate uniaxial stress response of polymers and other soft materials.

Triaxial Hopkinson techniques can be used to simultaneously subject a sample to axial and lateral compressions. The lateral compression may be applied through a pneumatic pressure vessel or dynamically using a special Hopkinson technique. This article reviews these two techniques in detail. It illustrates a 75-mm Hopkinson system, particularly designed to test large samples of concrete, rock, polymeric composites, and other materials with relatively coarse microstructures. The article also provides information on the pneumatic pressure vessel for a 75-mm Hopkinson bar test system and the dynamic triaxial load cell on a 19-mm Hopkinson bar.

Split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) testing is traditionally used for determining the plastic properties of metals (which are softer than the pressure bar material) at high strain rates. However, the use of this method for testing ceramic has various limitations. This article provides a discussion on the operational principle of the traditional SHPB technique and the relevant assumptions in the derivation of the stress-strain relationship. It describes the inherent limitations on the validity of these assumptions in testing ceramics and discusses the necessary modifications in SHPB design and test procedure for evaluating high-strength brittle ceramics. The article includes information on the maximum strain rate that can be obtained in ceramics using an SHPB and the necessity of incident pulse shaping. It also reviews the specimen design considerations, interpretation of experimental results obtained from SHPB testing of ceramics, and effectiveness of the proposed modifications.

This article provides a discussion on the generation of an incident wave with the help of the stored-torque torsional Kolsky bar and explosively loaded torsional Kolsky bar. It examines the procedures followed for measuring the waves in these bars. The article compares the compression Kolsky bar with the torsional Kolsky bar. It includes information on the various application areas of torsional Kolsky bar: limitations on strain rate, low- and high-temperature testing, quasi-static and incremental strain-rate testing, and localization and shear-banding experiments.

This article begins with a review of the purposes of mechanical characterization tests and the general considerations related to the mechanical properties of anisotropic systems, specimen fabrication, equipment and fixturing, environmental conditioning, and analysis of test results. It provides information on the specimen preparation, instrumentation, and procedures for various mechanical test methods of fiber-reinforced composites. These include the compression test, flexure test, shear test, open hole tension test, and compression after impact test. The article describes three distinct fracture modes, namely, crack opening mode, shearing mode, and tearing mode. It presents an overview of fatigue testing and fatigue damage mechanisms of composite materials and reviews the types of mechanical measurements that can be made during the course of testing to assess fatigue damage. The article concludes with a discussion on the split-Hopkinson pressure bar test.