Dynamic Response of Aluminum 5083 During Taylor Impact Using Digital Image Correlation

Aluminum 5083 was tested using forward Taylor impact experiments for impact velocities ranging from 75 to 393 m/s, using stereo digital image correlation (DIC) at 320,000 Hz as the primary data collection method. The Taylor impact experiment is a simple method for evaluating the response of materials at high strain and strain rate, historically by using relationships between the material sample geometric profile after the experiment and yield stress. Initially, this limited Taylor impact experiments to qualitative studies, since the time-variance of the stress-strain state complicates analysis. A benefit of using DIC is that a single experiment sample provides quantitative information about the material deformation response at a wide range of strains and strain rates. DIC was used in this experimental program to measure the strain field, strain rate, and profile of the samples during impact. Peak strains approaching 80% and strain rates approaching 10⁵/s were measured at the impact-end of the material samples at higher velocities (320 m/s and higher). Numerical simulations of the experiments were conducted using LS-DYNA and showed good time-resolved agreement with the experiment result strain and strain rate profiles from DIC. Highlights of the DIC data, including strain fields, time histories, and comparisons between experiments will be presented along with comparisons of the DIC data to the numerical analysis.