Finite element modeling of the drop weight impact test of PMMA specimens

MARCOS SAN MARTÍN; VALERIA PETTARIN; ADRIAN CISILINO

Praga

Conferencia; The Third International Conference on Computational Modeling of Fracture and Failure of Materials and Structures CFRAC 2013; 2013

The drop weight impact test consists in a falling weight that impacts the specimen. This impact striker, also known as a tup, falls through a vertical guide tube that directs it to the center of a flat circular specimen (see ASTM D3763 for details). A main advantage of using drop weight impact test over other standard tests, like Charpy and Izod tests, is its ability to reproduce conditions under which real life component would be subject to impact loading. In this way, it is possible to induce different failure modes on the specimen by changing the test parameters. In particular, experimental tests performed as part of this work have shown that the failure mode of polymethyl metacrylate (PMMA) specimens changes from punching to flexural with the increment of the tup diameter, d, with respect to the specimen diameter, D. It is presented in this work a finite element modeling of the drop weight in order to better understand the change in the specimen failure mode with the tup diameter.