Comparison of Long Bar Test Method to Oberst Bar Test Method for Damping Material Evaluation

Several methods for evaluating damping material performance are commonly used, such as Oberst beam test, power injection method and the long bar test. Among these test methods, the Oberst beam test method has been widely used in the automotive industry and elsewhere as a standard method, allowing for slight bar dimension differences. However, questions have arisen as to whether Oberst test results reflect real applications. Therefore, the long bar test method has been introduced and used in the aerospace industry for some time. In addition to the larger size bar in the long bar test, there are a few differences between Oberst (cantilever) and long bar test (center-driven) methods. In this paper, the differences between Oberst and long bar test methods were explored both experimentally and numerically using finite element analysis plus an analytical method. Furthermore, guidelines for a long bar test method are provided.