An experimental setup to study the collision force between brittle impacting bodies

A new experimental setup to study the interaction between two brittle bodies which can experience crushing, comminution or fragmentation during impact is herein presented. The system consists of a free falling body and an instrumented impacted plate, onto which an accelerometer is installed, lying on three force ring cells. The recorded acceleration is decomposed into Intrinsic Mode Functions thanks to a Variational Mode Decomposition technique to obtain relevant time-histories associated with specific vibration frequencies. The mass participating to each mode is obtained by comparing the discrete Fourier transforms of force and acceleration. Finally, the adoption of a high-speed camera provides additional insights into the interaction, in particular when non-spherical bodies are considered. The results of a small experimental campaign serving as a benchmark are presented and discussed. •The time–history of the collision force is reconstructed from measurements.•Acceleration is decomposed into Intrinsic Mode Functions.•Variational Mode Decomposition technique is adopted.•The inertia is reconstructed based on the mass participating to each mode.•Superposition of inertia and measured force provides the contact force.