Stress Analysis of the Impactor Assembly of the Dropped Weight Impact Testing Machine

This paper presents the stress analysis of an impactor assembly of a dropped weight impact testing machine. A finite element analysis was performed to calculate the stress occurred on the impactor during the impact which should be less than its yield strength. By varying the level of the reaction load from the specimen to the impactor, the maximum load that can be withstand by the impactor assembly without plastic deformation was predicted. Then, several simulations were carried out to find the best way to increase the load limit of the impactor. It was found out that increasing the thickness of box to 7 mm and both the diameter of arm and frame-column to 40 mm will increase the load limit by 236%.