Adhesive materials present two potential opportunities for light weighting current and future vehicles including military vehicles: use of an adhesive may reduce the number of bolts and weldments needed for mechanically joined components, and adhesives may open the possibility for multi-material joints allowing for the incorporation of lighter-weight materials. To meet these opportunities, prospective adhesive materials would need to perform satisfactorily in high strain rate loading situations such as impact. Since little is known about the dynamic failure of adhesive materials, this study investigates the behavior and failure modes of adhesive materials and joints subjected to ballistic impact. The critical failure speed, defined as the projectile speed at which the adhesive or interface fails is determined experimentally. Furthermore, the energy absorption characteristics of the adhesive are determined experimentally and numerically using finite element analysis.
Mechanical characterization of rocks at high strain rate
