Inertial Impact Tests on Polymers for Inverse Parameter Identification

In aircraft and automotive components, polymeric materials such as PMMA are subjected to dynamic loading and deform at moderate (1-100 s(-1)) and high strain rates (> 10(2) s(-1)). A methodology for calculating the strain-rate dependent parameters of PMMA at high strain rates will be presented. Images of each sample deforming were collected during an inertial impact test with an ultra-high speed camera, recording at 3 Mfps. The full field displacement, strain, and acceleration were input to the virtual fields method to perform an inverse identification of the material parameters.