Dynamic impact testing with servohydraulic testing machines

Abstract
The design concept of “Crashworthiness” requires the information on material behaviour under dynamic impact loading in order to describe and predict the crash behaviour of structures. Especially the transport related industries, like car, railway or aircraft industry, pursue the concept of lightweight design for a while now. The materials' maximum constraint during loading is pushed to permanently increasing figures. This means in terms of crashworthiness that the process of energy absorption in structures and the mechanical behaviour of materials must well understood and can be described appropriately by material models.
In close cooperation with experts from various industries and research institutes Instron has developed throughout the past years a new family of servohydraulic testing machines specifically designed to cope with the dynamics of high rate testing. Main development steps are reflected versus their experimental necessities.