Objective
The main objective of this activity is to introduce dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) used for characterizing the dynamic behavior of polymeric materials. Due to the viscoelastic nature of polymeric materials, their mechanical properties are influenced by time, frequency, temperature and input stress or strain levels. By performing the DMA viscoelastic properties of materials such as elastic or storage modulus, viscous or loss modulus, and damping properties as a function of temperature and frequency can be estimated. An accurate estimation of these properties is essential towards the design and optimization of viscoelastic materials such that they can be used for various dynamic applications including suppression of vibration for large frequency bandwidth and varying environmental conditions (temperature).