Overview
EZDamp is an automated software application for the measurement of vibration damping properties of materials in accordance with standards such as ASTM E-756, often referred to as the Oberst Bar Method. Using the EZDamp application you can determine materials properties such as the loss factor, h, and Young’s modulus, E, or the shear modulus, G.
EZDamp provides serial bus control of temperature chamber controllers from major environmental chamber manufacturers such as Thermatron or Wadlow. Custom temperature chamber controller modules can be developed for other controllers. EZDamp also reads the thermocouple located in the test chamber to assure that the desired temperature has been reached before the test is conducted.
EZDamp provides a gain controlled noise excitation signal to the shaker that excites the test bar and reads the accelerometer output signal from the bar. The relationship between these two signals creates a transfer function from which the material properties are derived.
EZDamp provides automated control of the test, moving the test through each temperature that has been configured. Automated signal processing identifies modes and calculates damping factors for signals that have well defined mode shapes. Manual/visual control is provided for user interaction on signals that don’t have well defined mode shapes.
EZDamp works with National Instruments signal acquisition and data acquisition hardware including the cDAQ USB NI9250/9260 devices, the PXI-4461 and the PXI-4463/4464 devices.
Features
EZDamp provides both single test point manual mode operation and multiple test point automated execution modes. The automated mode provides instructions to the temperature chamber controller to go to the desired temperature, while monitoring a thermocouple to determine if the bar has reached temperature. Once the bar has reached the required temperature, within the configured settling tolerances, signal generation to the bar is automatically started. The transfer function associated with either the Bare Bar or Damped Bar is determined by comparing the input signal to the output from the system accelerometer. When the signal averaging is completed, automated signal processing algorithms identify the modes and determine the damping factor.
When the data acquisition at each temperature is completed, EZDamp instructs the controller to go the next temperature and starts the process over again until data at all configured temperatures has been collected. Automated control functions can power down chamber fans during data acquisition to assure that external vibration sources do not affect the test.
EZDamp provides an export routine that makes it easy to transfer the test results into pre-configured MSExcel template workbooks that provide additional data analysis after the test is complete.
EZDamp is provided with several MSExcel analysis templates for post process of the EZDamp data. Templates for determinng the loss factor and Youngs modulus from the damping factors derived by EZDamp are provided for bars Damped One Side, Damped Both Sides or bars configured for Sandwich Damping.
EZDamp is also provided with a Reduced Frequency Nomogram workbook that processes the Damping Factor and Youngs modulus data into a nomogram for the material.
EZDamp provides test setup controls that allow you to configure the software to meet your specific testing needs, allowing it to work with the thermodynamic properties of your test setup and your National Instruments hardware.
- Configure Input and Output Hardware Settings
- Configure input transducer sensitivity
- Configure sampling settings
- Configure thermocouple settings
EZDamp Test Setup allows you to configure a test temperature sequence and configure the system for modal frequency detection ranges. Temperature settling parameters can be adjusted to assure temperature accuracy or to improve test speed.
Pricing
EZDAMP sells for $12,000.
