An investigation on using the falling mass technique for dynamic force calibrations

In this paper, we present an experimental setup developed for the calibration of dynamic force transducers which is based on the drop mass method. The traceability to SI units is realized through well-known mass characteristics and a reference shock accelerometer attached to that mass. Two approaches are proposed to analyse dynamic force employing a drop mass system. One approach depends on the inertial force of a falling mass while the other deals with the work-energy principle. Results of both approaches are then compared to the response of a statically calibrated force transducer. It is shown that the obtained maximum relative deviations between the response of force transducer and the first approach results are 1% while those of the second approach are 2%.