Comparison of different methods for dynamic characterization of porous-elastic materials

Acoustical simulation of porous-elastic materials requires several properties to be characterized, one of them is the dynamic mechanical behavior of the structure. For this goal, quasi-static mechanical analysis (QMA) is the generally used method executed in the ca. 20-60 Hz frequency range, resulting constant (averaged) mechanical properties. Polymer-based materials, however, are well-known from their time- and frequency-dependent behavior. This implies the need for having frequency-dependent data in a wider frequency range, but the error induced by the fluid motion inside the pores increases with frequency. For that reason, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) together with frequency-temperature superposition method was chosen to analyze the possibility of extending the evaluable frequency range. Different measurement setups and strategies were tested and evaluated to minimize the errors coming from machine resonances and other influencing factors, and results were compared to those obtained from the classical QMA measurements. It was finally proven, that with thoroughly chosen technique, DMA can give high quality results for porous-elastic materials as well, in a remarkably wide frequency range.