S. Giménez

Recent Advances in Material Characterization Using the Impulse Excitation Technique (IET)

The Impulse Excitation Technique (IET) is a non-destructive technique for evaluation of the elastic and damping properties of materials. This technique is based on the mechanical excitation of a solid body by means of a light impact. For isotropic, homogeneous materials of simple geometry (prismatic or cylindrical bars), the resonant frequency of the free vibration provides information about the elastic properties of the materials. Moreover, the amplitude decay of the free vibration is related to the damping or internal friction of the material. At present, IET is a well-established non-destructive technique for the calculation of elastic moduli and internal friction in monolithic, isotropic materials. Standard procedures are described in ASTM E 1876-99 and DIN ENV 843-2. IET can also be performed at high temperature (HT-IET) using a dedicated experimental setup in a furnace and constitutes a valuable tool in the field of mechanical spectroscopy. In the present work, the most recent advances in high temperature characterization using IET at K.U. Leuven are presented: the deformation behaviour of WC-Co hard metals, softening phenomena in TiB2, relaxation mechanisms in ZrO2 composites and “in-situ” monitoring of the damage evolution in uniaxially pressed metallic green compacts during delubrication.