Pressure Waves in Soils Using a Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar

摘要

Soil specimen lengths of 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 inches were tested in a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) to determine effects of grain size, moisture content, confining pressure, and specimen length on material dampg, wave speed and transmissibility. For these SHPB tests the soil specimen length was long compared to the pulse length of the loading pulse. Three different grain sizes were tested for determination of damping/attenuation coefficients. A medium to fine sandy soil was tested both statically and dynamically for effects of moisture content, and compaction energy. The main conclusion is that the split-Hopkinson pressure bar can be used to obtain meaningful data on soil properties at intermediate strain rates. Considerable scatter is also present in the laboratory data. If further soil tests at intermediate strain rates are desired then the SHPB should be modified to accommodate a triaxial test call.