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DKD

3. Force and Acceleration

Daniel Schwind

The Technical Committee “Force and Acceleration“ was created in 2009, as a successor to the former Technical Committee “Mechanical Quantities“. Force and acceleration were the two remaining mechanical disciplines after the transformation of the Working Group “Torque“ into a separate Technical Committee in 2002. Approximately 40 members from Germany and other European countries are actively engaged in the work of the Technical Committee. Calibration laboratories of the industry as well as institutes for material testing, interested and experienced supporting members, assessors of the DAkkS and employees of the PTB participate in the annual meeting of the Technical Committee.

The meeting is always held prior to the meeting of the Technical Committee “Materials Testing Machines“, so that synergies can be exploited here. In relation to issues concerning the measurement of the physical quantities force and acceleration, the Technical Committee “Force and Acceleration“ serves as the most important competence association in the German-speaking area. The task of the Technical Committee and its voluntary members is to promote the metrological infrastructure in their respective fields. This is achieved primarily through an intensive exchange of experiences during the meetings of the Technical Committee, through the organization of interlaboratory comparisons and the development of guidelines.  Regarding the measurement of force, the Technical Committee –in close cooperation with the Technical Committee “Materials Testing Machines“–  has set itself the task to develop guidelines for the calibration of dynamic forces. Since the beginning of 2013, a 20 kN intercomparison for static forces is being performed, in which 23 accredited calibration laboratories from Germany and Europe are taking part. With regard to the measurand acceleration, the Technical Committee is currently developing an important guideline for the calibration of measuring amplifiers that are used for dynamic measurements of kinematic and mechanical quantities.

So far, the following calibration guidelines have been published by the Technical Committee: • DKD-R 3-1: Calibration of accelerometers according to the comparison procedure Basics | Shock excitation | Sinus and multisinus excitation | Primary calibration of  vibration meters with sinusoidal excitation  and interferometric measurement of the  vibration magnitude • DKD-R 3-3: Calibration of force measuring devices  • DKD-R 3-9: Continous calibration of force transducers according to the comparison procedure