LAUSR

An innovative identification strategy based on high power ultrasonic loading together with both infrared thermography and ultra-high speed imaging is presented in this article. It was shown to be able to characterize the visco-elastic behaviour of a polymer specimen (PMMA) from a single sample over a range of temperatures and strain-rates. The paper focuses on moderate strain-rates, i.e. from 10 to 200 s−1, and temperatures ranging from room to the material glass transition temperature, i.e. 110∘C. The main originality lies in the fact that contrary to conventional Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA), no frequency or temperature sweep is required since the experiment is designed to simultaneously produce both a heterogeneous strain-rate state and a heterogeneous temperature state allowing a local and multi-parametric identification. This article is seminal in nature and the test presented here has good potential to tackle a range of other types of high strain-rate testing situations.