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A Dynamic Inflation Test for Soft Materials

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Abstract

We developed a dynamic inflation experiment to measure the elastodynamic behavior of soft materials. In the experiments, a shock tube was used to apply dynamic pressurization to thin polydimethylsiloxane specimens. Two high-speed cameras were used to image the deforming specimen and three-dimensional digital image correlation was used to determine the three-dimensional displacement field of the specimen surface. We applied dynamic Kirchhoff plate bending theory and concepts from structural dynamics to derive a mathematical expression for the dynamic Young’s modulus. The phase velocity of the initial transverse wave propagation response and the vibration frequency of the long-time response were captured during our experiments and were applied in the calculation of the dynamic Young’s modulus.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ravi Yatnalkar and Matt Shaeffer for the design, building, and technical support of the shock tube inflation experimental setup. This research is financially supported with contract W91CRB-13-P-0090 from the US Army Aberdeen Test Center and US Army Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center, and the US Army Medical Research, Vision Research Program under grant number W81XWH- 10-1-0766.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    S. A. Bentil, K. T. Ramesh & T. D. Nguyen

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Material Science and Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    K. T. Ramesh & T. D. Nguyen

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  1. S. A. Bentil
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Bentil, S.A., Ramesh, K.T. & Nguyen, T.D. A Dynamic Inflation Test for Soft Materials. Exp Mech 56, 759–769 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-015-0122-1

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