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Chapter 4

Impact loading
Up until now we have considered all loadings to be applied gradually, in which case the body re-
mains static once the deections have reached their maximum values. Some loadings, however, are
dynamic: they vary with time. In this short chapter, we look at a specic case of dynamic loading:
impact loading, so-called because it concerns the forces and deections caused when objects strike
one another. We will assume that no energy is lost during impact (no heat or sound is generated).
This allows us to use the principle of conservation of energy to study impact loading. We also assume
that the bodies involved behave elastically; that there is no rebound of the bodies after collision; and
we neglect losses due to friction.
4.1 Impact loading of mass falling onto a spring
Lets start by considering the simplest case we can: a block falling a distance h onto a spring.
Although this is simple, it actually represents a very general case since, conceptually, every elastic
system may be treated as an equivalent spring (we will see this in later examples).
When the block is released from rest, it falls a distance h, strikes the spring and compresses it by
an amount
max
. At the instant of this maximum deection, the mass momentarily comes to rest.
The conservation of energy requires that at this instant, when the mass has zero kinetic energy, all
of its potential energy is converted into strain energy in the spring. This means that
potential energy lost = strain energy gained
mg(h +
max
) =
1
2
k
2
max
. (4.1)
Rearranging as a standard quadratic equation for
max
, we have

2
max

2mg
k

max

2mgh
k
= 0, (4.2)
which has solution

max
=
mg
k

_
_
mg
k
_
2
+
2mgh
k
. (4.3)
The positive root is the one that makes sense. (The negative root actually gives the deection which
occurs when the mass is stationary and at its highest point, so is not completely useless.)
22
4.1. Impact loading of mass falling onto a spring 23
In the static case, the deection that would occur,
st
, is simply

st
=
mg
k
. (4.4)
Substituting this into (4.2) gives

max
=
st
+
_

2
st
+ 2
st
h (4.5)
or

max
=
st
_
1 +
_
1 +
2h

st
_
. (4.6)
It is important to bear in mind that this displacement occurs only instantaneously. The block will
continue to vibrate until the motion dampens out.
1
In the limit as t , the spring will assume
the static deection
st
.
If we set h = 0, then we get

max
= 2
st
, (4.7)
which may at rst seem like a strange result: it says that if we hold the mass just above the spring
and let go, we will see twice the steady-state deection. This does make sense, though: in the steady-
state case, we implicitly assume that any loading is applied gradually. In the present dynamic case,
though, the mass is let go all of a sudden, and has the chance to build up some kinetic energy, which
is converted into additional strain energy in the spring.
Once weve found
max
, we can calculate the maximum force applied to the spring using
P
max
= k
max
. (4.8)
Again, one must remember that this load occurs only instantaneously. We can now dene the impact
factor as the ratio of the maximum dynamic load to the equivalent static load. Since the equivalent
static load is given by P
st
= k
st
, the impact factor, n, is given simply by
n =
P
max
P
st
=
k
max
k
st
= 1 +
_
1 +
2h

st
. (4.9)
We can perform a similar analysis for a mass translating along a frictionless surface at velocity v.
Then conservation of energy dictates that
1
2
mv
2
=
1
2
k
2
max
, (4.10)
and solving for
max
gives

max
=
_
mv
2
k
. (4.11)
1
We assumed that there were no losses, so talking now about the motion dampening out is inconsistent. Of course,
the assumption of no losses is only an approximation, but it should be reasonably good over a single cycle, which is
what we are interested in. Over many cycles, though, the motion will die out.
4.2. Mass falling onto the flange of a rod 24
4.2 Mass falling onto the ange of a rod
Now consider a mass falling a distance h onto the ange of a rod. By how much does the rod extend?
The eective spring stiness for the rod is
k =
EA
L
. (4.12)
Which we can see by considering some general force P applied to the rod, for which
P = A = EA =
EA
L
. (4.13)
All we need to do is replace k with EA/L. The maximum deection is then

max
= +
mgL
EA
+

_
mgL
EA
_
2
+ 2h
_
mgL
EA
_
. (4.14)
Using the fact that

st
=
mgL
EA
(4.15)
we recover exactly the same expression as we did in 4.1:

max
=
st
+
_

2
st
+ 2
st
h. (4.16)
There is not much more to say on this, except to consider what happens for large h. In this case the
expression for
max
becomes

max
=
_
2
st
h =
_
2mgLh
EA
. (4.17)
The corresponding tensile stress in the bar is then
=
E
L
=
_
2Emgh
LA
. (4.18)
This gives us the somewhat surprising result that if we want to reduce the stress due to impact, we
can increase not only the cross-sectional area of the rod, but also its length. Reducing the Youngs
modulus E will also reduce the stress. This is quite dierent to static tension of a bar, where the
stress is independent of the length L and the Youngs modulus E.
4.3 Mass falling onto a massless beam
Finally, lets consider a mass m falling onto the centre of a massless, pin-supported beam of length
L. We know that for a pinned-pinned beam which is centrally-loaded with load P, the deection is

st
=
PL
3
48EI
, (4.19)
and the eective spring stiness is k = 48EI/L
3
. Again, we just need to substitute these expressions
into the equations developed in 4.1 to get an expression for the maximum deection,
max
.
4.4. Mass falling onto a beam with mass 25
4.4 Mass falling onto a beam with mass
We will consider this example in lectures.

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