DESIGN &FABRICATION OF

LOW VELOCITY IMPACT

TESTING MACHINE
Presented by
C.LIKITH KUMAR (9817009004)
P.VIGNESH (9916009221)
S.VIMAL KUMAR (9916009227)

Under the guidance of

Dr. N. RAJINI
PROFESSOR
 LITERATURE REVIEW
Composite materials can be defined as the materials that are formed by combining
two or more materials on a macroscopic scale. Composite materials often exhibit better
properties than traditional materials, and they often have qualities that their
constituents do not possess, such as strength, stiffness, resistance, attractiveness,
fatigue life, and some thermal properties.

The performance of impact testing apparatus was evaluated on the basis of results on
tests on specimen of different materials and layups.

• The use of instrumented drop weight machine provides useful information on low
velocity impact phenomena , allowing us to identify the different phase of damage
of extension.
• Small measurement errors in the force or initial velocity leads to the significant
errors in calculating energy.
 LITERATURE REVIEW
The behavior of the materials is different when they are subjected to dynamic loading.
The testing of materials under dynamic conditions needs an efficient and reliable
equipment to experimentally examine and quantify the dynamic behavior of materials
under low velocity impact loads. The range of such impact loads vary from a few m/s
to several hundred m/s (such as a bullet impact). It is not possible with any one
apparatus to cover a velocity range such as this. Various devices such as explosive or
air gun rigs are employed for high velocity impact tests. Drop weight machines are in
use to conduct test at low velocity impact loads.

Failure mode in composites depends not only on the energy carrying by the
impactor, but also velocity and mass. It is known that “a large mass with low initial
velocity may not cause the same amount of damage as a smaller mass with higher
velocity, even if the kinetic energies of the two masses are exactly the same”
 LITERATURE REVIEW
Generally, a larger-massed projectile at a low velocity would cause larger damage
in the specimen than a high-velocity low-weight one. If complete penetration is not
achieved after impact, the damage type would include delaminations, matrix crack, and
fiber failures. The experimental results indicate that delaminations are generated only
between plies with different orientations. The area was shaped like a peanut in the
direction of the fibers.

When the impact velocity increases, the contact duration decreases between the
projectile and the target. For the same mass, ballistic limit velocity increases when the
diameter of the projectile increases. For the same projectile diameter, the ballistic limit
velocity decreases as the mass of the projectile increases. For the same projectile mass
and diameter, the ballistic limit velocity increases as the target thickness increases.
 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

• In recent years the use of composites materials in structural components has

been increasing in wide range of applications.

• Even though they offer more advantages, there is a problem of localized

impact damage due to the high sensitivity.

• Some times it is difficult to find the defect by visual inspection which results
in significant degradation of structural properties.

• For this reason this problem has recently received much attention. However
a standard test method is not available and various experimental procedures
have been used to evaluate their impact response.
 METHODOLOGY
Problem identification

Design

Cost Estimation

Selection of materials

Methodology Proposed

Setup Installation

Trail run
 METHODOLOGY USED
• In general there are three types of impact testing machines used in
experiments namely,

1. Drop weight impact rig

2.Pendulum impactor
3.Gas gun impactor

• Our setup is related to drop weight impact rig concept.

• This equipment consists of two vertical rods mounted on steel base.

• Over the base there is a vice in between two rods to hold the specimen.

• The dropping assembly is enabling to slide along the rod by cylindrical

guides.
 METHODOLOGY USED
• The impactor probe consists of three components: a dropping head, base
for mounting penetration probes and penetration impactor.

• The piezo electric sensor is placed in the impactor head to determine the
force of the impactor.

• By the use of software IMPACT developed by C++ program we can able

to calculate various parameters like energy to produce incipient damage,
peak impact force, material properties, boundary conditions.

• The scale is fixed at a side to measure the height of fall of an impactor.

FREE SKETCHING
 REFERENCES

• Robert M. Jones. (1998). Mechanics of Composite Materials. U.S. Taylor & Francis.
• F. Aymerich, P. Marcialis, S. Meili, P. Priolo. “ An instrumented drop-weight machine
for low velocity impact testing. Design and Fabrication of Drop Weight Impact Testing
Machine”
• Anmol Sharma, Karthik D, Hemanth Kumar J, Naveen H E, “Design and Fabrication of
Drop Weight Impact Testing Machine”
• Abrate, S., 1998. Impact on Composite Structures. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
• Naik NK et al. (2010). “Damage in woven-fabric composites subjected to low-velocity
impact”. Compos SciTechnol 2000; 60:731-44
• N.K. Naik, P.Shrirao and B.C.K.Reddy. (2005). “Ballistic impact behavior of woven
fabric composites parametric studies”. Materials Science and Engineering A 412, 104-
106.
THANK YOU