A Micro/Macro Impact Test at Controlled Energy for Erosion and Phase-Transformation Simulation

An impact test with energy control has been developed to study the degradation phenomena generally encountered on materials submitted to complex conditions including impacts, for example during erosion. The test permits the material response to single or multiple impacts at a microscopic and a macroscopic scale to be characterized. The energy of each impact is precisely controlled and may reach a value of 100 mJ per impact. Experiments have shown that the dynamic loading duration is very short, typically between 100 and 200 μs, and deformation speeds on the impacted metals are in the order of magnitude of 103 s-1. Indenters of various tip radii have been used and a large range of impacting conditions tested. The high reproducibility of the tests confirms that it permits the simulation of damage phenomena already identified in metallic substrates submitted to erosion wear induced by hard particle impacts.