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Quantitative studies of material properties and interfaces using the atomic force microscope (AFM) have important applications in engineering, biotechnology, and chemistry. Contrary to what the name suggests, the AFM actually measures the displacement of a microscale probe, so one must determine the stiffness of the probe to find the force exerted on a sample. Numerous methods have been proposed for determining the spring constant of AFM cantilever probes, yet most neglect the mass of the probe tip. This work explores the effect of the tip mass on AFM calibration using the method of Sader (1995, 'Method for the Calibration of Atomic Force Microscope Cantilevers,' Rev. Sci. Instrum., 66, pp. 3789) and extends that method to account for a massive, rigid tip. One can use this modified method to estimate the spring constant of a cantilever from the measured natural frequency and Q-factor for any mode of the probe. This may be helpful when the fundamental mode is difficult to measure or to check for inaccuracies in the calibration obtained with the fundamental mode. The error analysis presented here shows that if the tip is not considered, then the error in the static stiffness is roughly of the same order as the ratio of the tip's mass to the cantilever beam's. The area density of the AFM probe is also misestimated if the tip mass is not accounted for, although the trends are different. The model presented here can be used to identify the mass of a probe tip from measurements of the natural frequencies of the probe. These concepts are applied to six low spring-constant, contact-mode AFM cantilevers, and the results suggest that some of the probes are well modeled by an Euler-Bernoulli beam with a constant cross section and a rigid tip, while others are not. One probe is examined in detail, using scanning electron microscopy to quantify the size of the tip and the thickness uniformity of the probe, and laser Doppler vibrometry is used to measure the first four mode shapes. The results suggest that this probe's thickness is significantly non-uniform, so the models upon which dynamic calibration is based may not be appropriate for this probe. [DOI: 10.111511.4000160]

Measurements are presented from a two-beam structure with several bolted interfaces in order to characterize the nonlinear damping introduced by the joints. The measurements (all at force levels below macroslip) reveal that each underlying mode of the structure is well approximated by a single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system with a nonlinear mechanical joint. At low enough force levels, the measurements show dissipation that scales as the second power of the applied force, agreeing with theory for a linear viscously damped system. This is attributed to linear viscous behavior of the material and/or damping provided by the support structure. At larger force levels, the damping is observed to behave nonlinearly, suggesting that damping from the mechanical joints is dominant. A model is presented that captures these effects, consisting of a spring and viscous damping element in parallel with a four-parameter Iwan model The parameters of this model are identified for each mode of the structure and comparisons suggest that the model captures the stiffness and damping accurately over a range of forcing levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A laser Doppler vibrometer measures the translational velocity at a point along the direc-tion of incident light. It has been shown that rotational velocities can also be recovered when the laser scans continuously along a short line or small circular path around that point. This work uses the harmonic transfer function to relate the measured translational and rotational velocities to the input force. With this concept, the continuous-scan approach can be combined with the conventional point-by-point scheme, acquiring three dimensional velocities under various types of excitation conditions in the same amount of time that is required for obtaining only the translational velocity. The proposed approach is validated on a downhill ski under free-free boundaiy conditions with a circular scan pattern. The influence of the circle size, the scan rate and the surface quality on the noise level is evaluated. It is found that the circular-scan approach provides smoother and more reliable mode shapes than the conventional point-by-point approach given appro-priate parameters. Local slopes at the measurement locations are then computed from the identified rotational velocities, providing additional information for model validation and damage detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous-scan laser Doppler vibrometry (CSLDV), a concept where a vibrometer measures the motion of a structure as the laser measurement point sweeps over the structure, has proven to be an effective method for rapidly obtaining mode shape measurements with very high spatial detail using a completely non-contact approach. Existing CSLDV methods obtain only the operating shapes or arbitrarily scaled modes of a structure, but the mass-normalized modes are sought in many applications; for example, when the experimental modal model is to be used for substructuring predictions or to predict the effect of structural modifications. This paper extends an approach based on impact excitation and CSLDV, presenting a new least squares algorithm that can be used to estimate the mass-normalized modes of a structure from CSLDV measurements. Two formulations are derived: one based on real-modes that is appropriate when the structure is proportionally damped and a second that accommodates a complex-mode description. The latter approach also gives the algorithm further latitude to accommodate time-synchronization errors in the data acquisition system. The method is demonstrated on a free-free beam, where both CSLDV and a conventional test using an accelerometer and a roving-hammer are used to find its first seven mass normalized modes. The scale factors produced by both methods are found to agree with a tuned analytical model for the beam to within about ten percent. The results are further verified by attaching a small mass to the beam and using the model to predict the change in the structure's natural frequencies and mode shapes due to the added mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]