An evaluation method of an impact test and an impact tester are provided, capable of simply and accurately obtaining a natural frequency of the impact tester without adding a special machine for measuring the natural frequency of the impact tester. A personal computer includes, as a functional configuration, a data extraction section extracting from time-series data of force a data section for obtaining a natural frequency of an impact tester in a natural vibration analysis, and an analysis section carrying out a frequency spectrum analysis on the extracted data section. The data extraction section and the analysis section are respectively stored as a data extraction program and an analysis program in a memory.

A method for acoustically measuring material properties of a test piece at high temperatures, includes the steps of: heating the test piece to within a testing temperature range; performing a background measurement within said testing temperature range by capturing a vibrational signal from the test piece within a calibration period, thereby obtaining a noise signal; performing an acoustic measurement on said test piece within said testing temperature range and within a testing period by: imparting a vibrational excitation onto the test piece; capturing a vibrational signal of the test piece within the testing period, thereby obtaining a vibrational response signal to said vibrational excitation, and obtaining the material properties of the test piece by analyzing the vibrational response signal, thereby taking into account the noise signal. A system is provided for acoustically measuring material properties of a test piece at high temperatures.

A method of evaluating fatigue in a hair fibre sample includes receiving fatigue testing data for the hair fibre sample for a plurality of loading cycles, in which the fatigue testing data comprises force or stress against displacement or strain data. The method also includes determining, for at least a subset of the loading cycles, a loading energy based on data from the fatigue testing data. The method also includes determining an indication of fatigue in the hair fibre sample based on the loading energy of the at least a subset of the loading cycles.

A hardness test block wherein the number of test sites is optimized for a given test block size and a hardness being tested. The hardness test block has an alignment template that enables an operator to be assured of having the test bock grid pattern aligned properly with the indenter of a hardness testing machine. Another means for aligning the test block with the hardness testing apparatus is a cradle for the test block so that the primary test surface as well as the opposite surface can both be used for testing purposes such that the cradle protects the test surface from being contacted by the anvil of the hardness testing machine during the test operation. Another alternative is having a plurality of legs or pins on the test surface of the test block to prevent the test surface from contacting the anvil when the opposite test surface is being used for testing. A formula is provided so that the optimum grid pattern for a test surface can be obtained for any test block, irrespective of size, shape, or expected indentation size in order to obtain the least amount of test block material needed for a given number of test sites.

A force applicator assembly is disclosed to calibrate an in-situ force transducer (or load cell) in a force (load) applying test machine. The force applicator includes stationary member configured to be secured to fixed structure, a moving member, a load cell operably coupled to an end of the moving member, and a differential screw assembly connecting the moving member to the stationary member. A coupling assembly can be used to assure that only tension or compression loads are applied. The coupling assembly can be configured if desired such that no tension or compression loads can be applied. A method to calibrate an in-situ force transducer in a force applying test machine is also provided and uses a force generator and the coupling assembly.

An apparatus and method for measuring the impact performance of a target material comprising a hollow structure comprising an outlet end located above a target. The hollow structure is dimensioned to allow free movement of a drop test object through the outlet end. A trigger is located proximate to the outlet end and a retaining member is located proximate to the outlet end and coupled to hollow structure. The retaining member is configured to retain the drop test object in the hollow structure upon activation of the trigger.

In a material testing machine including a load actuator including a shaft configured to make a linear motion, and configured to apply a load to a test piece through the linear motion of the shaft, the load actuator includes a bearing configured to support the shaft, and the bearing serves as an air bearing.

With increasing demands for cost reductions, profitability, tighter construction deadlines and potential liabilities construction companies, raw material suppliers, infrastructure owners, etc. are seeking cost effective systems, method and processes relating to the quality control of said construction materials. Accordingly processes, systems and methods are disclosed relating to concrete and other construction materials such as automatic slump measurement, automatic load measurement, artificial intelligencemachine learning optimization of material mixes, and automatic ingestion of data from unstructured documents to provide data to artificial intelligencemachine learning processes.

A defect detection method and device based on nonlinear system identification are provided. The defect detection method includes: performing, by a modal force hammer, hammer excitation on a test specimen according to a test schedule to generate an excitation signal and a response signal; acquiring, by a laser vibrometer, the excitation signal and the response signal; performing parameter calculation on the excitation signal and the response signal to obtain model parameters; constructing an initial Hammerstein model based on the model parameters; optimizing the initial Hammerstein model to obtain a Hammerstein model of the test specimen; adjusting the Hammerstein model of the test specimen by using a cross-validation method; perform defect determination based on the Hammerstein model of the test specimen adjusted and a pre-constructed template specimen model to obtain a determination result, and determining whether the test specimen is defective based on the determination result.

A method for searching for statistics correlated with a strength of a pillar-shaped honeycomb formed body after firing having predetermined design specifications including a step of measuring two or more parameters for 90% or more of the polygonal cells excluding partial cells at the outermost periphery, and calculating two or more statistics for each parameter measured; a step of firing each of the plurality of pillar-shaped honeycomb formed bodies before firing under predetermined conditions to prepare a plurality of pillar-shaped honeycomb formed bodies after firing; a step of evaluating a correlation between the two or more statistics and the strength of the plurality of pillar-shaped honeycomb formed bodies after firing; and a step of determining a statistic having the highest correlation with the strength of the pillar-shaped honeycomb formed bodies after firing having the predetermined design specifications from among the two or more statistics.