On compression and damage evolution in PTFE and PEEK

The well-known Taylor cylinder impact test, that follows the impact of a flat-ended cylindrical rod onto a rigid stationary anvil, is conducted over a range of impact speeds for two polymers, PTFE and PEEK. In previous work experiments and a model were developed to capture the deformation behaviour of the rod after impact. A distinctive feature of these works was that a region in which both spatial and temporal variation of both longitudinal and radial deformation showed evidence of changes in phase within the material. This region is X-ray imaged in a range of impacted targets at the I13 Imaging and Coherence beam line at the Diamond synchrotron. Further techniques were fielded to resolve compressed regions within the recovered polymer cylinders that showed a fracture zone in the impact region. This shows the transit of damage from ductile to brittle failure results from previously undetected internal failure.