Determining material properties of components with complex shapes using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy

Abstract

In this paper, Resonance Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS) is used to invert the elastic properties of components with complex shapes from a limited selection of mode matched frequencies. RUS is based on the unique relationship between the vibrational resonance response (resonance frequencies and mode shapes) of a component and its set of material properties, geometry, and boundary conditions. The study is conducted on 3 nominally identical components that have geometric imperfections due to the manufacturing process. The study reveals that an accurate characterization of the shape is critical to the success of the RUS process. The RUS process presented in this paper also relies on matching measured and computed vibrational mode shapes, in addition to the resonance frequencies. This strategy enables using high-order modes with complex modal information, in a frequency range with high modal density where modal identification based on the resonance frequencies alone would be challenging. This approach contrasts with the traditional approach of matching a number of resonance frequencies in sequential order. With the proposed approach, the elastic constants for the three components are similar, consistent with values found in the literature, and lead to small error of the RUS inversion, despite variations in the shapes and the resulting changes in the resonance response of the components.