A new method for identifying mechanical impedence of soft viscoelastic materials

Abstract

Following the wider use of viscoelastic materials in industries over the past few decades, being able to characterize mechanical properties of such materials experimentally has become increasing important. However, existing dynamic testing methods such as free decay method, forced vibration method, resonant method and wave propagation method share a common drawback. Each of these methods requires the use of sensors and actuators in exciting and measuring the load and deformation which renders the loading effect of sensors for small samples and the mass effect of sensors at high frequency testing inevitable. Furthermore, installation of sensor and actuators is difficult when the space is small. Sample preparation is also a major problem to overcome in applying the existing method. Moreover, they are not suitable for in situ testing.