Determination of the high strain rate fracture properties of ductile materials using a combined experimental/numerical approach

The ‘flying wedge’ is a dynamic tensile test rig for determining the fracture properties of ductile materials over a range of strain rates from 102–104 s−1. To accurately interpret the results from these tests, finite element simulations of the complete experiment as well as detailed models of the specimen subjected to different loading conditions are conducted using advanced materials constitutive relations. A new technique to carry out interrupted tensile testing at high strain rates on the flying wedge has been developed. Some typical results of the combined experimental and numerical technique are used to compare the predictions of different numerical ductile failure models which are also briefly reviewed in this paper.