Sound Speed and Poisson’s Ratio Calibration of (Split) Hopkinson Bar via Iterative Dispersion Correction of Elastic Wave

A process of calibrating a one-dimensional sound speed (co) and Poisson’s ratio (ν) of a (split) Hopkinson bar is presented. This process consists of Fourier synthesis and iterative dispersion correction (time-domain phase shift) of the elastic pulse generated by the striker impact on a circular bar. At each iteration, a set of co and ν is assumed, and the sound speed versus frequency (cdc versus fdc) relationship under the assumed set is obtained using the Pochhammer–Chree equation solver developed herein for ground state excitation. Subsequently, each constituting wave of the overall elastic pulse is phase shifted (dispersion corrected) using the cdc–fdc relationship. The co and ν values of the bar are determined in the iteration process when the dispersion-corrected overall pulse profiles are reasonably consistent with the measured profiles at two travel distances in the bar. The observed consistency of the predicted (dispersion-corrected) wave profiles with the measured profiles is a mutually self-consistent verification of (i) the calibrated values of co and ν, and (ii) the combined theories of Fourier and Pochhammer–Chree. The contributions of the calibrated values of co and ν to contemporary bar technology are discussed, together with the physical significance of the tail part of a traveling wave according to the combined theories. A preprocessing template (in Excel®) and calibration platform (in matlab®) for the presented calibration process are openly available online in a public repository.