The material loss factor and modulus of damping materials are useful in designing measures to control vibration in structures and the sound that is radiated by those structures, especially at resonance. This test method determines the properties of a damping material by indirect measurement using damped cantilever beam theory. By applying beam theory, the resultant damping material properties are made independent of the geometry of the test specimen used to obtain them. These damping material properties can then be used with mathematical models to design damping systems and predict their performance prior to hardware fabrication. These models include simple beam and plate analogies as well as finite element analysis models.

This test method has been found to produce good results when used for testing materials consisting of one homogeneous layer. In some damping applications, a damping design may consist of two or more layers with significantly different characteristics. These complicated designs must have their constituent layers tested separately if the predictions of the mathematical models are to have the highest possible accuracy.