Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Kolsky Bar Experiment For High-Rate Large Deformations Of Polycarbonate, Jason Gerald Vogeler

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Polycarbonate (PC) is a tough, transparent engineering thermoplastic. Its impact strength and ability undergo large plastic deformations without shatter make PC an ideal protective material for impact-resilient eyewear, aircraft windows and transparent armor. A good understanding of the response of this material to large deformations at high strain rates is critical for its utilization in these applications. To this end, a striker-less Kolsky bar device is employed in this work for the needed material characterization. The apparatus allow impulsive torsion and/or compression loadings with pulse durations sufficiently long for the plastic flow behavior to develop fully. Three new testing techniques …

Mechanics Of Blast Loading On Post-Mortem Human And Surrogate Heads In The Study Of Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi) Using Experimental And Computational Approaches, Shailesh Govind Ganpule

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Blast induced neurotrauma (BINT) has been designated as the “signature injury” to warfighters in the recent military conflicts. The occurrence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in blasts is controversial in the medical and scientific communities because the manifesting symptoms occur without visible injuries. Whether the primary blast waves alone can cause mechanical insult that is comparable to existing traumatic brain injury thresholds is still an open question, and this work is aimed to address this issue.

In the first part of this dissertation, mechanics of primary blast loading on Realistic Explosive Dummy (RED) head with and without helmets is studied …