Abstract

The Taylor test is a means to validate constitutive models at high strain rates as well as a means to evaluate dynamic compression failure properties of materials. Taylor testing has been intensively used in its original configuration consisting of one cylindrical specimen impacting an anvil made of hard steel to reproduce a rigid wall and referred as the classical Taylor test. With the use of symmetric impact, the rigid wall assumption and guessing the friction coefficient are no longer needed to simulate the Taylor test. Symmetric loading procedures for high strength and low strength metallic materials will be presented along with comparisons between classical Taylor and symmetric Taylor experimental and numerical data. The use of the symmetric Taylor test so as to characterize failure mechanisms involving adiabatic shear banding in metals will be also discussed.