Dynamic behaviors of visco-elastic thin-walled spherical shells impact onto a rigid plate

As a representative structure, ping-pong balls are usually used to study the mechanical properties of thin-walled spherical shells. In a previous study, the dynamic behaviors of ping-pong balls impinged onto a rigid plate were investigated. It was found that the dynamic deformation energy of the balls could be several times higher than that under quasi-static compression, which could not be completely explained by elastic-plastic material property, strain-rate and inertial effects. In this paper, more impact tests were conducted and the details including the contact time, deformation and rebound behaviors with different impact velocities were reinvestigated. Based on the experimental results, visco-elastic material model is applied and the numerical simulation of thin-walled spherical shells impact onto a plate is performed, in which the influences of the visco-elastic parameters and the impact velocity on the dynamic behaviors are studied. By adjusting the visco-elastic parameters, the contact time, deformation, and the coefficient of restitution agree well with the experimental results.