MEASUREMENT OF NON-LINEAR INTERNAL DAMPING IN METALS: PROCESSING OF DECAY SIGNALS IN A UNIAXIAL STRESS FIELD

Abstract The specific damping capacity of metallic materials is not linear and depends upon temperature, strain and strain rate. To evaluate the strain influence on material damping, homogeneous strain fields are recommended; these homogenous fields generally are not realized in damping measurement. In this paper the development of an automated experimental procedure is presented; the procedure is based on an improved method able to evaluate the material damping by sinusoidally exciting the specimen in uniaxal traction or compression with a frequency from 60 to 300 Hz. The test machine is a high frequency Amsler vibrofore and the experimental method is based on the acquisition of the decay signal when the machine excitation force has been removed. Signals are acquired by means of an A/D board installed in a personal computer; dedicated software has been created which performs complete analysis and directly provides graphic results. The method can discriminate between material damping and damping of the machine and fixtures. The resulting curves of the loss factor as a function of strain amplitude for three steels and two cast irons are presented.