Figure 4:

Average experimental compressive strain (E₂) and optimized FE results over time. Error bars on the experimental data have been omitted for clarity. Static loading produced a steady-state compressive strain of approximately 18%. Dynamic loading compressive strain was lower in magnitude, approximately 15% at equilibrium. The FE model coefficients were optimized using the static experimental data, and the FE results for the dynamic case were obtained using those best fit coefficients. The resulting FE model provided an excellent description of the static strain-time curve as well as excellent prediction of the dynamic strain-time curve.