Apparatus and a method for measuring in-plane elastic constants for a laminate

• Main Authors: LIN JOHN Z, BOSSI RICHARD H
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2016
• Subjects: ARRANGEMENTS FOR MEASURING TWO OR MORE VARIABLES NOT COVEREDIN A SINGLE OTHER SUBCLASS; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASUREMENT OF MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS OR ULTRASONIC, SONIC ORINFRASONIC WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING NOT SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR A SPECIFIC VARIABLE; MEASURING OR TESTING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PHYSICS; TARIFF METERING APPARATUS; TESTING

An apparatus is provided that includes a wave generator, plurality of transducers and processing device. The wave generator may be configured to simultaneously generate a plurality of acoustic waves that propagate through a laminate along a plurality of in-plane directions. The transducers may be spaced apart from one another and positionable at one or more known distances from the wave generator along respective in-plane directions. The transducers may be configured to detect acoustic waves propagating through the laminate along the respective in-plane directions. The processing device may be coupled to the transducers and configured to simultaneously calculate a plurality of elastic constants of the laminate as a function of velocities of the acoustic waves detected by the transducers. And the processing device may be configured to calculate the velocities as a function of the known distance(s) and arrival times of the acoustic waves at the transducers.