ACTA IMEKO

ISSN: 2221-870X
December 2020, Volume 9, Number 5, 118 - 123

IN-SITU DYNAMIC FORCE CALIBRATION USING IMPACT HAMMERS

M. Kobusch1, L. Klaus2

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany,

1
[email protected], 2 [email protected]

Abstract: device, researchers from the American national

This paper presents experimental investigations metrology institute NIST proposed in-situ
of in-situ dynamic force calibrations in which an calibration by means of a dynamically calibrated
impact hammer provides the dynamic reference impact hammer used as a force reference [4].
force. Here, the force transducer to be calibrated Furthermore, an application of a dynamically
remains in the original mechanical structure of the uncalibrated impact hammer to characterize the
force measurement application to which calibration dynamic behaviour of a force transducer array was
shock forces are applied in a suitable way. published in [5].
Numerous experiments with different force Impact hammers (or modal hammers) are widely
transducer set-ups and different impact hammer used in industry and science for the modal testing of
configurations were conducted to validate this in- mechanical structures. These hammers incorporate
situ calibration method. The paper describes the a piezoelectric force sensor that measures the force
analysis of the measurement data and presents the pulses applied. Interchangeable hammer tips and
force transfer functions obtained. Finally, these mass extenders are used to vary the length and
dynamic calibration results are discussed. amplitude, and thus the spectral content, of the
pulses. Further information on the theory and
Keywords: shock force; dynamic calibration;
practice of dynamic measurements and modal
transfer function; modal hammer
analysis by means of impact hammers can be found
1. INTRODUCTION in [6, 7].
Such an in-situ calibration has a significant
While the measurement of dynamic forces plays advantage: the force transducer to be calibrated
an important role in many areas of industry, the remains unchanged in its original mechanical set-up
traceability of such forces is predominantly based as used for the dynamic measurement application.
on static calibrations, as documentary standards and Possible changes in the dynamic system behaviour
generally accepted guidelines for dynamic resulting from mounting and dismounting the force
calibrations rarely exist or are still in their infancy transducer (e.g. due to variations of contact stiffness,
[1, 2]. damping, component positioning or orientation) are
Research on the dynamic calibration of force avoided. In addition, no complex modelling or
transducers has been conducted by several national compensation of parasitic inertial force components
metrology institutes in recent years. The main are required.
objective of this research is the establishment of The in-situ calibration should be performed
calibration facilities in which sinusoidal or pulse- using the same amplifier and data acquisition
shaped force excitations are used. Although these system, configurations, filter settings and sampling
facilities are suited to characterize a force rates that will be used later for dynamic force
transducer dynamically, the calibration results measurements. Otherwise, the frequency responses
obtained by means of different excitation methods of the different measuring chains must be known
or calibration set-ups can often only be transferred and taken into account accordingly. The in-situ
to each other, or later to a specific application, via dynamic force calibration provides calibration
suitable mechanical modelling [3]. For this purpose, results in the frequency domain – the frequency
corresponding decisive dynamic parameters must response function which, in principle, allows
be determined that result from the given mass and traceability to other dynamic signal forms such as
elasticity distribution of the force transducer and the sine forces, step forces or arbitrary force pulses.
calibration set-up connected to it. In the following, experimental tests of the in-situ
To avoid the difficulties and challenges of dynamic calibration method proposed are presented
dynamic force traceability associated with a in which the measurement set-up uses a similar
transducer dynamically calibrated in an external mechanical arrangement of a force transducer

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mounted at its base and loaded at its top by a load different hammer tips. All signals were passed
mass to which the shock force is applied. The use of through a 4th order 20 kHz Bessel low-pass filter to
different impact hammers as well as different suppress disturbances caused by modal vibrations
measurement set-ups is simulated by varying the of the acceleration sensor or the reference mass
hammer configuration and changing the load mass observed above 50 kHz. The acceleration signal
of the transducer, respectively. This mechanical obtained with the steel tip still shows some
configuration is typical for many impact force remaining ripples. The pulse width weakly depends
measurement applications in industry such as on the pulse magnitude [8] due to the nonlinear
component tests and crash tests. contact stiffness of the hammer tip and is about
0.2 ms (steel tip) or 0.65 ms (plastic tip) using a
2. HAMMER CALIBRATION reference mass of 1 kg. Both calibration signals
The in-situ dynamic force calibration method show very similar Gaussian-like pulse shapes.
proposed is a secondary calibration method in
which the reference force is provided by a
dynamically calibrated impact hammer. In contrast
Pendulum
to the negative force step calibration method used in
[4], calibrations at PTB are carried out on a
conventional hammer calibration set-up that
provides traceability by measuring the inertial force
of a reference mass that has been hit by the impact
hammer to be calibrated. The calibration device
shown in Figure 1 uses a string-suspended
cylindrical mass body (e.g. 1 kg) that is struck by
the hammer. The inertial force of this mass body is
measured by an accelerometer and is compared to
the hammer’s output signal. In order to simulate the Strings

curved movement of manually executed hammer

strokes and to achieve a defined impact trajectory Holder
that can be reproduced well, the hammer is
elastically clamped in a holder mounted on a Reference Mass
pendulum.
All measurements described in this paper were Accelerometer
Impact Hammer
carried out with a Kistler 9726A200001 impact
hammer connected to an IEPE signal conditioner
(PCB 482C series) that forms part of the measuring
chain considered. The hammer that is specified with
a head mass of 500 g was equipped with different
hammer tips and an optional mass extender (250 g)
Figure 1: Impact hammer calibration device at PTB
screwed onto the hammer head. All components of
the force reference (acceleration sensor, charge The magnitude response of four impact hammer
amplifier, reference mass) were calibrated and configurations – applying two different hammer tips
traced to SI units. Both calibration signals were with and without a mass extender – is visualized in
sampled by means of a National Instruments Figure 3; diagram (a) shows the response in the
PXI-5922 data acquisition card. lower frequency range up to a frequency of 2 kHz,
Whereas the calibration result commonly used in (b) up to 10 kHz. Each curve represents the
the time domain is the sensitivity defined as the weighted spectral average of pulses with different
pulse peak ratio, this paper will focus on calibration shock force magnitudes and is given with its
results in the frequency domain, i.e. the complex respective weighted standard deviation. The
frequency response (sensitivity) in magnitude and weighting is based on the power spectral density of
phase. However, only magnitude responses are the reference signal. The number of samples ranges
presented in the following, as these have the most from 12 to 33 and is indicated in brackets. At a
practical importance in dynamic force measurement. sample length of 15 ms, the frequency resolution of
Typical pulse signals of the impact hammer the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) amounts to
calibration are visualized in Figure 2 for two 67 Hz.
____________________________________________________
1
Commercial devices are identified in this paper only to adequately specify the experimental set-up. Such identification
does not imply recommendation by PTB, nor does it imply that the equipment identified is necessarily the best available
for the purpose.

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 0.24
The magnitude responses are almost constant at
lower frequencies and the four configurations differ
by less than 2.5 % up to a frequency of 2 kHz. At
higher frequencies, the curves clearly decrease, and

Magnitude in mV/N
measurements with the plastic tip demonstrate
apparent ripples of unknown origin. In general, 0.23
hammer calibrations with the metal tip or the mass
extender yield slightly higher values.
Above 2 kHz, the weighted standard deviation
strongly increases for measurements with the plastic
tip, which indicates an insufficient frequency 0.22
content for large pulse widths. The increased 0 500 1000 1500 2000

deviations at the lowest frequency bins are due to (a) Frequency in Hz

power line noise. 0.3
The coherence function is commonly used as a
measure of the correlation between two signals in
the frequency domain. Figure 4 shows the 0.25
coherence of the measurements presented. The

Magnitude in mV/N
values decrease substantially at higher frequencies,
0.2
especially when measuring with the plastic tip. In
this case, the usable frequency range of the hammer Steel Tip (16)
calibration data is limited to a few kilohertz, 0.15 Steel Tip, Mass Extender (12)
whereas the steel tip can be used up to 10 kHz. Plastic Tip (31)
Plastic Tip, Mass Extender (33)
0.1
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Impact Hammer (b) Frequency in Hz
Accelerometer
Figure 3: Magnitude response of the impact hammer for
Signal in arb. unit

four hammer configurations: (a) frequency range up to

2 kHz, (b) up to 10 kHz. Each curve shows the weighted
mean with the weighted standard deviation. The number
of samples is given in brackets.

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Time in ms
Coherence

0.9
Signal in arb. unit

Steel Tip (16)

Steel Tip, Mass Extender (12)
Plastic Tip (31)
Plastic Tip, Mass Extender (33)
0.8
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Frequency in Hz

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Figure 4: Coherence between the two calibration signals
Time in ms
for four hammer configurations; each curve shows the
arithmetic mean. The sample size is given in brackets.
Figure 2: Calibration signals of impact hammer (blue)
and acceleration sensor (orange) obtained with hammer The rather flat sensitivity of the tested impact
tips made of steel (top) and plastic (bottom). hammer seems to validate its use as a dynamic force
reference in the lower kilohertz range. Even if only
In order to estimate the measurement
the static calibration or a single-frequency
uncertainties of the impact hammer calibration,
calibration values were used, the potential dynamic
further research is needed to understand the
errors would be quite small for many dynamic
observed behaviour. Possible influences are elastic
applications. In the following section, the suitability
modes of the hammer or the reference mass.
as a dynamic force standard for in-situ calibrations
However, the lowest modal resonance of the 1 kg
is experimentally investigated.
reference mass is at about 30 kHz [8].

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 3. IN-SITU DYNAMIC FORCE The in-situ dynamic calibration set-up can be
CALIBRATION EXPERIMENTS modelled as a mass-spring-damper system; in the
simplest approach with one degree of freedom, it is
The principal arrangement of the in-situ dynamic
attached to a rigid base and its mass is struck by the
force calibration set-up is illustrated in Figure 5.
hammer. The model mass consists of the applied
The force transducer to be calibrated (signal UFT(t))
load components plus the internal upper part of the
and the reference force sensor (signal UREF(t))
force transducer, and the spring represents the
incorporated in the impact hammer are marked in
transducer’s axial stiffness. The larger the mass, the
blue. The force transducer is vertically mounted on
lower the system’s fundamental resonant frequency.
a heavy base plate by means of an adapter; its upper
The tests were carried out using a small strain
section consists of a load adapter and an optional
gauge force transducer (HBM U3 / 10 kN) mounted
load mass fixed in place by screws. The hammer is
to a steel mass cube of 10 kg as the base plate, which
operated by hand in such a way that the hammer tip
rested freely on the foundation below via a plastic
hits the load adapter as centrally and vertically as
tray. This mass is the reaction mass of the 20 kN
possible. Photographs of the respective mechanical
impact force calibration facility at PTB, thus
components of the experiments are shown in
simplifying future comparison calibrations. The
Figures 6 and 7.
force transducer is equipped with flange ends on
both sides and features an integrated lateral force
compensation, which is advisable for manual
hammer blows where the impact position and force
direction are not well defined. The hammer force
was introduced to the upper flange end of the force
transducer via a screwed-on load adapter with a
spherical load button. To simulate mechanically
different in-situ dynamic calibration set-ups, the top
end of the force transducer was equipped with
different loads. Stacking the load adapter with two
optional mass discs plus mounting bolts yielded
four values determined by weighing: 135 g, 237 g,
446 g and 551 g.

Figure 5: Illustration of the in-situ dynamic force

calibration.

5 7
2

1
6

Figure 6: Components of the calibration experiments:

HBM U3/10 kN force transducer (1) with load adapter (2)
and two optional load mass discs (3) plus mounting
screws (4); Kistler 9726A20000 impact hammer (5) with Figure 7: In-situ dynamic force calibration using a load
two hammer tips (6) and optional mass extender (7). mass of 135 g and a steel hammer tip.

ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org December 2020 | Volume 9 | Number 5 | 121

 All tests were performed with a single impact measurements. The pulse peak values of the impact
hammer; however, in a practical sense, the use of hammer ranged from about 0.3 kN to 2.5 kN.
different hammer tips and an optional mass Figure 9 demonstrates the effect of the variation
extension simulated the application of different of the load mass on the magnitude response showing
hammers. For each combination of a force measurements obtained with the steel hammer tip.
transducer set-up and a hammer configuration, The upper diagram (a) visualizes the data up to a
hammer strokes of varying force magnitude were frequency of 4 kHz on a logarithmic axis scale, the
measured and analysed. magnified view (b) up to 2 kHz on a linear scale.
Figure 8 presents typical pulse signals in the The three curves start at similar magnitudes – the
time domain for four experimental configurations. force transducer is specified with a static sensitivity
The upper row was obtained with 135 g (the of 0.5 mV/N – and gradually rise to a dominant
smallest external load mass), the bottom row with resonance, whose frequency strongly depends on
446 g. The signals achieved with the steel hammer the applied load mass. This resonance is described
tip are shown on the left and those achieved with the by the above-mentioned model with one degree of
plastic tip are shown on the right. In each example, freedom. The magnified view shows that the
the hammer peak force was in the range of 1.5 kN. magnitude responses also differ at lower
frequencies. The kink at the lowest frequency bins
is caused by the rather elastic coupling of the 10 kg
base plate with the calibration set-up to the
foundation below. This dynamic behaviour was
confirmed by modelling the magnitude response
Signal Voltage in a.u.
Signal in arb. unit

function using a multi-degrees-of-freedom model

that considered an elastic base coupling of the
calibrationKistler
set-up.9726A20000 without mass extender

100
135 g
237 g

0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 551 g

Magnitude in mV/N

Time in ms 10
Time in ms
Signal Voltage in a.u.

1
Signal in arb. unit

0.1
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Impact Hammer
(a) Frequency in Hz
Force Transducer Kistler 9726A20000 without mass extender

0.8
0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
135 g
Time in ms Time in ms 237 g
0.7 551 g
Figure 8: Measurement signals of the in-situ dynamic
Magnitude in mV/N

force calibration for four experimental configurations:

HBM U3/10 kN force transducer with a load of 135 g 0.6
(top row) and 446 g (bottom row); hammer strokes with
steel tip (left) and plastic tip (right).
0.5
These examples clearly demonstrate that the
pulse shape and the peak force of the impact
hammer and the force transducer can deviate 0.4
substantially, i.e. the comparison of peak values is 0 500 1000 1500 2000
(b) Frequency in Hz
not useful. The fundamental resonance is excited by
the hammer strokes and the force transducer Figure 9: Magnitude response for three different force
measures a ringing whose vibration amplitude calibration set-ups: load masses 135 g, 237 g, 551 g;
depends on the specific configuration and impact impact hammer with steel tip; (a) resonance peaks in the
frequency range up to 4 kHz; (b) magnified view of the
conditions.
lower frequency range up to 2 kHz.
The following diagrams present the magnitude
response for different configurations of the The influence of the impact hammer on the
calibration set-up and the impact hammer. Each magnitude response of the calibration set-up is
curve displays averaged data from about 40 shown in Figure 10 for an example load mass of

ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org December 2020 | Volume 9 | Number 5 | 122

237 g. The measurements were obtained with both domain will in principle provide traceability to any
hammer tips, both with and without a mass extender. dynamic signal shape within the considered
As can be seen, the four responses agree very well. bandwidth; i.e. the in-situ calibration by means of
The agreement of calibration results obtained an impact hammer is not restricted to shock force
with different hammer configurations and applications.
experimentally tested on different calibration set- Future work will focus on the estimation of the
ups allows the conclusion that the in-situ calibration measurement uncertainties of the hammer
method proposed is well suited for dynamic force calibration as well as the in-situ force calibration. In
calibrations, at least for mechanical arrangements this regard, some issues already addressed above
similar to those investigated
Calibration in gthis
set-up with 237 loadwork.
mass will be further investigated to understand the
0.8 observed dynamic behaviour. These activities may
Steel Tip include alterations of the impact hammer calibration
Steel Tip, Mass Extender set-up using other reference masses or sensors, the
0.7 Plastic Tip
modification of the measuring chain and the data
Magnitude in mV/N

Plastic Tip, Mass Extender

analysis procedures, comparisons of guided and
0.6 manually operated hammer strokes, the analysis of
phase responses and modelling using multi-degree-
of-freedom systems.
0.5
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
0.4 The authors gratefully acknowledge Ms Yang
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Peng for her collaboration in performing the
Frequency in Hz
experimental measurements presented in this paper.
Figure 10: Magnitude response for different hammer
configurations: steel/plastic hammer tip; with/without 6. REFERENCES
mass extender; load mass 237 g.
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