A novel ballistic pendulum configuration, incorporating a peripherally clamped centrally supported (PCCS) circular plate, has been developed at BISRU to capture shear failure events during blast loading experiments. In particular, the timing of shear failure events and the associated force history can be measured. In contrast to the traditional ballistic pendulum the PCCS configuration is not intended to represent way plates are mounted in practice, but is specifically designed to generate data for code validation.
In the PCCS configuration a test plate is clamped between two thick plates with circular cutouts. This assembly is then mounted on a ballistic pendulum that has been designed to allow a Hopkinson Pressure (HPB) bar to be placed against the centre of the distal (rear) face of the test plate. The proximal (front) face of the exposed plate in loaded with an explosive charge. As the plate responds to the loading it interacts with the HPB which acts as central support. In this way the reaction force history of the central support is captured and can be used to study failure events, such as shearing.