Quantitative Visualization of Dynamic Material Behavior

The dynamic behavior of materials is an extremely active and increasingly relevant area of research, but with many significant scientific challenges due to the extreme time-scales of events, limited by the ability to visualize. Its applications range from traditional ballistics to the design and optimization of next-generation transportation and communication systems, critical areas of energy and the environment through geological resource recovery, and planetary and celestial formation processes. These application areas require an in-depth understanding of material or structural response as a function of dynamic loading, with distinct emphases on extreme conditions such as high strain rates, impact, blast, penetration, and shock loading. In order to successfully understand a dynamic event and its associated mechanisms, it is not only sufficient to visualize the event, but also necessary to quantify the governing parameters through in situ visualization. The transition from exclusively qualitative imaging to the addition of the quantitative aspect of visualization enhances dynamic experimental mechanics research, often by obtaining full-field information from various types of imaging such as optical, thermal, and X-ray, to name a few. Current work in this area has begun to leverage novel experimental configurations and measurement methodologies due to recent advances in spatial and/or temporal resolution of high-speed and ultra-high-speed cameras, microscopes and sensors, consequently transforming the dynamic behavior research landscape. In order to continue to embrace and articulate these advancements, and increase the number of publications inExperimental Mechanics on this relevant topic, beginning in 2014 the SEM Dynamic Behavior Technical Division has conducted three successful sessions with fourteen papers on the topic of Quantitative Visualization. Based on the interest shown by the experimental mechanics community and the importance of the concept of Quantitative Visualization, the Experimental Mechanics editor suggested the creation of this special issue. As such, the following issue includes nine papers focusing on the Quantitative Visualization of Dynamic Material Behavior. Breakthroughs in understanding dynamic material behavior is mostly limited by the availability of experimental methods to conduct investigations to understand the associated mechanisms of deformation and failure in material under dynamic loading. Novel dynamic loading methods with in situ quantitative visualization of deformation and failure help us to overcome formidable challenges and observe these underlying mechanisms and develop associated governing equations. A novel modification of a classical Kolsky (split-Hopkinson) bar system is used to conduct dynamic compression and fourpoint bend experiments on human femoral cortical bone, and is presented in the paper by Sanborn et al. In this paper, they use full-field digital image correlation (DIC) at dynamic loading rates to quantify the deformation response of small transversely isotropic specimens. Another full-field optical technique using a Kolsky bar maps light intensity from the surface of in situ shear evolution in fiberglass composites with varying resin binders, and is presented in the paper by Lamberson et al. A notably novel contribution to the biomedical field is * L. Lamberson les@drexel.edu