Practical techniques for the vibration method with additional mass: effect of specimen moisture content

This work examines the effect of moisture content on the accuracy of nondestructively and simply estimating weight, density, and Young’s modulus by a vibration test without measuring specimen weight. The resonance frequencies with and without concentrated mass were measured by longitudinal vibration and bending vibration tests. The wet specimens whose initial moisture contents were 93–134% were dried at 20 °C and 65% relative humidity, and their weight, density, and Young’s modulus were estimated. The accuracy of the estimation was affected by the increase in the resonance frequency, caused by the drying process, during the vibration tests. The resonance frequency without the concentrated mass should, therefore, be measured after obtaining the resonance frequency with the concentrated mass. The accuracy of the estimation in the bending vibration test was higher than that in the longitudinal vibration test. This tendency can be explained by the error in the measurement of resonance frequencies with and without the concentrated mass.