Dynamical buckling of a table-tennis ball impinging normally on a rigid target: Experimental and numerical studies

We report on the dynamical buckling of a spherical shell (a table-tennis ball) impinging in normal incidence on a rigid surface (a glass plate). Experimentally, we observe and decipher the geometrical characteristics of the shell profile in the contact region along with global metrics such as the contact duration and the coefficient of restitution of the linear velocity. We determine, in particular, the onset of the ball buckling instability. We find that, just like in quasi-statics, the shell buckles when the crushing exceeds about twice the thickness of the shell. In addition, for launching conditions resulting in the ball elastic buckling, a drop in the restitution coefficient is observed. A companion numerical finite elements study is set to monitor the different sources of energy and reveals that the added energy loss is mainly due to the friction between the shell surface and the solid substrate.