An impact hammer is a hammer equipped with a piezoelectric force sensor and serves to stimulate a structure that is to be examined. Various hard tips made of steel, different plastics and rubber of varying hardness can be mounted to the force sensor; each of these tips stimulates different frequency spectra.
An accelerometer is used to measure vibrations generated by the hammer blow on the structure that is to be examined.
An impact hammer allows the dynamic behavior of a structure to be easily examined during its development phase or in actual use. The pulse force hammer method provides extensive information on the frequency response and damping behavior of the structure being examined.
The measuring element integrated in the impact hammer has a voltage output. The instrumented hammer and the accelerometers are supplied by multi-channel couplers. Used in combination with an FFT analyzer, the transfer functions of the structure are determined from the acceleration and force signals.
Advantages of the impact hammer method:
In general, the range of the excited frequencies decreases with increasing impact duration. The impact tips mounted on an impact hammer are made from various materials (steel, plastic and rubber tips of various density) and stimulate various frequency ranges. Depending on the frequency one wishes to stimulate in the structure, the selected impact tip and an extender mass (for increasing the force range) are mounted on the hammer.
