Impact Dynamics

Catalog description

A specialized but very important branch of engineering mechanics deals with the collision of multiple bodies throughout a broad range of relative velocities. The physical phenomenon during impact and subsequent response of each of the bodies is dependent on the mechanical Material properties of each, the impact velocities, and the relative size and orientation of each of the bodies. Impact response is most easily categorized based on the impact velocity (relative approach velocity of two bodies), ranging from elastic response with little change in temperature at low velocities, through plastic deformation and/or fracture at higher velocities, to physical state changes of bodies or a portion of a body at hyper-velocity impacts (>1 km/sec).