Dynamic behaviour of stainless steel investigated with a tension split Hopkinson bar

Stainless steel has been used in construction industry for some years as minor components, such as fixings, fasteners, and cladding. In recent times, the whole-life cost for a structure has become an important concern for developers, contractors, architects, engineers and property owners. Although the initial high cost has greatly limited the structural use of stainless steel, it is believed that this steel material will be increasingly used in civil engineering and construction, owing to the benefits of stainless steel. This has been recently witnessed in a lot of projects around the world. In order to better design a structure, it is critical to understand the behaviour of its members and materials under extreme conditions. In the past, a lot of investigations have been conducted on the dynamic behaviour of conventional carbon steel, whilst only a few study has been dedicated to that of stainless steel. Based on this research background, stainless steel coupon tests were conducted recently using a tension split Hopkinson bar by the authors. At the same time, carbon steel material was also tested for comparison. These coupons were tested under different strain rates ranged from 300 s to 1000 s. It was found that the dynamic behaviour of stainless steel was different from the of carbon steel. Generally, higher strain rate sensitivity is expected for the stainless steel material.