Modified split Hopkinson pressure bars for dynamic bending and shear tests

Abstract : The dynamic failures of concrete beams occur in different modes (bend, shear or coupled mode....). In order to reproduce these different failure modes on a laboratory scale, an original apparatus, based on the split Hopkinson pressure bars principle is presented. We introduce the experimental setup, the way it works, the first experimental results we obtained with microconcrete test specimens as well as our first attempt to analyse the recorded signals.