Development and Experiment of Viscoelasticity Measurement Device for Sponge Material

Abstract:

The viscoelastic property of buffer material like sponge is an important index of material mechanics performance; it is also the main basis for choosing protective material used as hip protector. In order to research hip protector to prevent the elderly femoral fractures caused by falls, a single degree of freedom forced vibration model is adopted, and a portable viscoelasticity measurement device for sponge material is designed and developed in this paper. On this basis, the performance of the device is investigated, and the experimental research on the viscoelastic property of sponge material is carried out using the device. Investigation results show that the device has characteristics such as simple structure, light weight, and it can effectively realize the material property measurement of sponge material. At the same time, the experimental results to the viscoelasticitic property of sponge material show that the viscoelastic coefficients and usually given the performance index of sponge such as density, hardness have a close relationship. With the increase of sponge material hardness, the material's ability to resist deformation increases, so the viscoelastic coefficient also increases accordingly; but the viscoelasticity of material is also associated with the composition and the structure of the material. This research has obtained the effective method for measurement of the sponge material viscoelasticity, and found the change trend of viscoelasticity to density and hardness of sponge material, that is useful for us to select material of hip protector.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 621)
• Pages: 246-252
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.621.246
• Online since: August 2014
• Authors: Yi Lin Song*, Tong Zhang, Shu Mei Gao, Zhong Xian Wang
• Keywords: Femoral Fractures, Hip Protector, Measurement Device, Sponge Material, Viscoelasticity

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