Development of a Facility for Fast Tensile Tests : Sviluppo di una Macchina per Prove di Trazione Veloce

Metallic materials wider dynamic loads are subject to a phenomenon known as strain rate hardening. The strain rate hardening has a great relevance for the passive safety of the structures. Test procedures to evaluate the influence of the strain rate on the mechanical properties of a material are fundamental for the design of crashworthy structures. In this paper a test procedure for fast tensile tests which utilizes a drop tower and an inverted machine is introduced. During the development phase, to verify the efficacy of the procedure, tests were carried out using specimens obtained from Plates of two different materials: a mild steel and art aluminium alloy. The data collected for the two materials are repeatable and compared with the ones found in bibliography shouted the reliability of the test procedure developed.