In this book leading scientists share their vision on the Kolsky-Hopkinson bar technique
which is a well-established experimental technique widely used to characterize materials and
structures under dynamic impact and explosion loads. Indeed the Kolsky-Hopkinson bar machine
is not a simple experimental device. It is rather a philosophical approach to solve the problem
of measuring impact events. The split Hopkinson pressure bar conventional device is mainly
limited to test homogeneous ductile non-soft materials under uni-axial compression. Extending
the use of this device to more versatile applications faces several challenges such as
controlling the stress state within the specimen and mastering the measurement of forces and
velocities at the specimen-bar interfaces and then the material properties. Thus the topics
discussed in this book mainly focused on the loading and processing parts.
