A unit for testing materials at high strain rates

Some of the problems regarded as inherent in materials testing at high strain rates are associated with inertia effects, both in the loading mechanism and in the specimen itself. In fact, it has generally been difficult to ensure a homogeneous and uniaxial strain field. Some of these problems encountered in dynamic testing have, however, been circumvented in a simple testing unit, developed at the Technical University of Denmark and described in the present paper.