Experimental and numerical study of the dynamic response of B4C ceramic under uniaxial compression

Abstract The constitutive behaviour of boron carbide (B4C) ceramic has been studied under uniaxial compression at varying strain rates (10−4 to 103 s−1). The dynamic material tests have been carried out on cylindrical and cubical specimens using the modified split-Hopkinson pressure bar (MSHPB) setup. As such no significant effect on the material behaviour has been found until 500 s−1 strain rate, however, a subsequent increase in the strain rate stimulated a remarkable increase in the material strength. The specimen geometry had a substantial effect on the damage process, however, no influence on the material strength. The dynamic material tests were reproduced numerically to develop further insight about the material behaviour under high rate of loading. The simulations performed on Ansys/Autodyn using the elastic properties and Johnson-Holmquist (JH-2) material models, respectively, for metals (MSHPB) and ceramic provided a close estimate of the stress distribution, damage evolution and failure strain of the material.