Taylor impact of iron rods against an instrumented Hopkinson pressure bar anvil

In the classic Taylor test configuration cylindrical rods of a material of interest are projected against a rigid anvil (approximating perfectly stiff half-plane) at a sufficiently high velocity that the rods plastically deform. In the original analysis due to Taylor an estimate of the dynamic yield stress of the sample could be made from the post factum dimensions of the recovered samples. Here we explore replacing the rigid anvil with a calibrated Hopkinson pressure bar; the advantage being that it allows the force history of the impact event to be recorded. Alongside highspeed image acquisition of the impact event this allows for an experimental measurement of the dynamic stress history and represents a more rigorous validation exercise for any associated modelling and simulation. Here we present results on polycrystalline iron samples and discuss the pros and cons of this approach.