Further investigation on the dynamic compressive strength enhancement of concrete-like materials based on split Hopkinson pressure bar tests. Part I: Experiments

Effects of the inertia-induced radial confinement on the dynamic increase factor (DIF) of a mortar specimen are investigated in split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) tests. It is shown that axial strain acceleration is unavoidable in SHPB tests on brittle samples at high strain-rates although it can be reduced by the application of a wave shaper. By introducing proper measures of the strain-rate and axial strain acceleration, their correlations are established. In order to demonstrate the influence of inertia-induced confinement on the dynamic compressive strength of concrete-like materials, tubular mortar specimens are used to reduce the inertia-induced radial confinement in SHPB tests. It is shown that the DIF measured by SHPB tests on tubular specimens is lower than the DIF measured by SHPB tests on solid specimens. This paper offers experimental support for a previous publication [Li QM, Meng H. About the dynamic strength enhancement of concrete-like materials in a split Hopkinson pressure bar test. Int J Solids Struct 2003; 40:343-360.], which claimed that inertia-induced radial confinement makes a large contribution to the dynamic compressive strength enhancement of concrete-like materials when the strain-rate is greater than a critical transition strain-rate between 10¹ and 10² s^-1. It is concluded that DIF formulae for concrete-like materials measured by split Hopkinson pressure bar tests need to be corrected if they are going to be used as the unconfined uniaxial compressive strength in the design and numerical modelling of structures made from concrete-like materials to resist impact and blast loads.