Acoustic Determination of Properties Possessed by Porous Titanium

Abstract

To impart the optimal structure to a powder material and promote high mechanical properties, the production process is to be monitored at each step using nondestructive methods. Acoustic methods are believed to be promising in this respect. The parameters of acoustic fields are influenced by many factors that determine the structure and properties of powder materials. A relevant task is to improve acoustic methods for the identification and use of this influence. A model material is taken as an example to show the capabilities of a nondestructive acoustic method relying on integrated measurement of the propagation velocities of longitudinal, transverse, and rod elastic waves in studying the patterns peculiar to the powder structurization at the molding and sintering stages. The following problems that can be solved using this method are considered and experimentally confirmed: identify how the properties of the starting powders influence the characteristics of the final material, monitor the compaction and contact formation processes in the material, and identify features of these processes, which are manifested as uneven distribution of properties over the material and aftereffects and are stepwise. Additional criteria are proposed to increase the reliability and descriptiveness of the results. Analysis of the experimental data shows that the propagation velocities of bulk and rod elastic waves in different ways reflect the compaction and contact formation in powder materials. The differences are explained by the peculiarities of acoustic fields generated by various types of elastic waves.