Signal Correction for the Split-Hopkinson Bar Testing of Soft Materials

The Split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) test is a commonly accepted experiment to investigate the material behavior under high strain rates. Due to the low impedance of soft materials, here, the test has to be performed with plastic bars instead of metal bars. Such plastic bars have a certain viscosity and require a correction of the measured signals to account for the attenuation and dispersion of the transmitted waves. This paper presents a signal correction method based on a spectral decomposition of the strain-wave signals using Fast Fourier Transform and additional applied strain gauges in the experimental setup. The concept can be used to adapt the pulses and to concurrently validate the measurement method, which supports the evaluation of the experiment. Our investigation is carried out with a Split-Hopkinson pressure bar setup of PMMA bars and silicon-like specimens produced by the 3D printing process of digital light processing.