Validation of the IMCE RFDA System for Dynamic Elastic Moduli Measurements
The focus of this report is to describe the new system that has been acquired for the Low Activation Material Development and Analysis Laboratory (LAMDA) to perform the measurement of the dynamic Young’s and shear moduli, and to show that the results of the new system are more easily analyzed and more accurate than the current systems. The current system is the GrindoSonic MK5 Impulse Excitation and Vibration Test System from J.W. Lemmens, Inc., and the new system is the Resonant Frequency and Damping Analyser (RFDA) from Integrated Material Control Engineering (IMCE). A comparison between the results from both systems was performed with nine specimen shapes and five graphite grades. All of the results showed agreement of the moduli values within 1-2%. The only outliers were a 20% disagreement for one specimen shape and a 5-10% disagreement for a second specimen shape, but it was shown that this occurred because the GrindoSonic system was reporting the frequency for the flexural harmonic peak rather than the fundamental torsional peak.