Fragmentation of an axially impacted slender rod

Abstract

Motivated by experimental results on the dynamic buckling and fragmentation of a vertical column impacted by a falling mass, results from an analytical model for dynamic buckling which considers the dynamic interaction between the axial column deformation and the out-of-plane buckling displacements are used to interpret the fragmentation process and the resulting fragment lengths. It is shown that a critical time exists for the rod to undergo fragmentation. At this critical time, the rod deforms in a modulated pattern of waves, setting up the stage for the ensuing fragmentation as a result of induced large curvatures that exceed the critical bending strain of the rod material. The resulting fragment length distributions, which show two characteristics peaks at lambda/2 and lambda/4, where lambda is a characteristic half-wavelength, are found to compare favorably with the experimental results.