DMA

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis – Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) is a technique used to measure the mechanical properties of a wide range of materials. Many materials, including polymers, behave both like an elastic solid and a viscous fluid, thus the term viscoelastic. DMA differs from other mechanical testing devices in two important ways. First, typical tensile test devices focus only on the elastic component. In many applications, the inelastic, or viscous component, is critical. It is the viscous component that determines properties such as impact resistance. Second, tensile test devices work primarily outside the linear viscoelastic range. DMA works primarily in the linear viscoelastic range and is therefore more sensitive to structure.

What types of measurements can I perform with DMA?

• Glass Transition (Tg) Temperature as a function of Frequency

• Modulus (E’)

• Loss Modulus (E”)

• Tan Delta (δ)

• Creep

• Stress Relaxation

• Time Temperature Superposition (TTS)

• DMA is one of the few techniques that can measure β and γ secondary transitions.