No, high-speed testing and impact testing are not the same. In impact tests, you have the contribution of energy that you don't have by just testing a sample at higher speed than usual. For instance, if you let a given weight fall onto a specimen, this is an impact test. If the weight fall from a higher height, the impact will be made with a higher speed, of course. So you can change the speed of the deformation of your sample by changing the height from which your impactor is falling. But if you use a higher weight at the same height, you will impact with a higher energy, whereas the speed of the deformation will be nearly the same. For this reason, impact tests and high-speed tests cannot be compared directly.

Alain

I agree with Alain when he says that something like "for the same height, if you change the weight you will get a different mechanical response". However, impact also belongs to the group of tests of high strain rate. When you switch from drop hammer test, to the Taylor test, to the Hopkinson test, ... or you change the weight for the same height, what you are doing is changing the loading path and also the microstructural dynamics. You can get a different  microstructural condition for the same strain if you go through a different loading path (different strain vs strain rate). If you do not have a high-speed test machine, so you should increase strain to get a similar microstructural condition.

Dear Colleagues!

The phase transition can be associated not with the rate of deformation, but with the pressure level. And high pressure is easier to achieve with shock or explosive loading.

Dear Prof. Aptukov, it is precisely the increase of the rate of deformation that promotes the increase in pressure and triggers microstructural changes. What literature do you recommend for this subject? Best regards, Pedro