A modified method for estimating the stress state of granular materials in the passive confined pressure SHPB tests

Abstract The Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) is the common testing method used to investigate the high strain rates behavior of engineering materials. In this paper, a theoretical modified method for the determination of stress state in the passive confinement SHPB tests of granular materials is proposed to overcome the disadvantages in the previous works. To validate the modified method, the dynamical response of calcareous sand with two moisture contents, namely, 25% and 30%, were tested by SHPB at high strain rates around 1000 s−1. The predictions provided by modified method were also compared with the experimental results, indicating that the proposed modified method in this paper is applicable in estimating the stress state in sand specimen.