Material property measurement using the quasi-Scholte mode—A waveguide sensor

Abstract

In the food industry and other industries, rheological measurements and determination of particle sizes in suspensions and emulsions is of great importance for process and quality control. Current test cell based ultrasonic methods exist but are often inconvenient. An attractive alternative could be to insert a simple measurement “dipstick” into the fluid; this paper presents an initial study of the feasibility of using measurements of the velocity and attenuation of the quasi-Scholte mode on a plate to obtain the longitudinal velocity and attenuation of an embedding medium. The attenuation of the quasi-Scholte mode is caused by two mechanisms: shear leakage and attenuation due to the bulk longitudinal attenuation of the embedding material. In a calibration test the bulk longitudinal velocity and viscosity of glycerol were determined experimentally. Measurements agreed well with results from conventional methods and literature data. Quantitative results and an independent validation for honey, a very viscous fluid, are also presented. For Newtonian liquids like glycerol and honey, the shear leakage and longitudinal bulk attenuation are both related to viscosity. To demonstrate the sensitivity to nonviscous attenuation mechanisms, qualitative measurement results on fluids that mainly exhibit attenuation due to scattering are presented.