Despite the practice of using cylindrical specimens in a Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar experiment, the use of non-cylindrical prismatic specimens is convenient when testing extra-soft materials. A part of the current research aims to show the feasibility of using non-cylindrical specimens in a Kolsky Bar. For this, experiments were conducted with a model material of different model cross-sections at a nearly constant strain-rate in the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar. The findings suggest the use of a suitable characteristic cross-section dimension of the specimen to determine the critical slenderness ratio while selecting a non-cylindrical prismatic specimen, whereby there is no effect of specimen length or cross-sectional shape on the stress-strain curve of the material. The second part of the investigation comprises of using the SHPB to find out the strength of an adhesive-bonded single lap joint. The current research focuses on extending existing models to predict the strength of adhesive joints by introducing a term for strain acceleration, based on elastodynamic theory of solids. The aim of this is to explain the drastic effect of overlap area of the joints on the dynamic strength of joints. A mathematical model was developed to explain this behavior and reasonably good agreement was found between the experiments and the mathematical predictions at moderately high loading rates. The third part of the research comprises of developing a Split-Hopkinson Tension Bar. The design proposed here comprises of an incidence bar which is 10 feet in length. An end of the incidence bar is coupled to a flange, whose diameter is greater than diameter than the incidence bar. An annular projectile is allowed to impinge on the flange, thereby generating a tensile pulse in the incidence bar. This pulse is used for loading the specimen. Copper was selected as the model material and its dynamic tensile properties were determined using the Split Hopkinson Tensile Bar..
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