Second harmonic generation using nonlinear Rayleigh surface waves in stone

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This research tests the potential application of the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) method using nonlinear Rayleigh surface waves to nondestructively quantify surface microstructural changes in thin stone. The acoustic nonlinearity parameter (β) has been assessed as a meaningful indicator for characterizing the nonlinearity of civil engineering materials; additionally, Rayleigh waves offer the opportunity to isolate a material's near surface microstructural status. Sandstone was selected for testing due to its relative uniformity and small grain size compared to other stone types; the sample thickness was 2 inches to reflect the minimum panel thickness recommended by the Indiana Limestone Institute. For this research, initially fully non-contact generation and detection techniques are evaluated before a 100kHz wedge transmitter and a 200kHz air-coupled receiver are employed for generation and detection of nonlinear Rayleigh waves. Non-contact transmitters and receivers have advantages such as removing the irregularities associated with coupling as well as not leaving residues, which in stone applications can be considered aesthetically damaging. The experimental results show that the nonlinear parameter, β, can be effectively isolated using the wedge transmitter and non-contact set up and that too much of the signal strength is lost in the fully non-contact method to extract meaningful results for this stone and stones with slow wave speeds. This indicates that the proposed SHG technique is effective for evaluating the nonlinearity parameter, β, and can next be applied to characterize near surface microstructural changes in thin applications of dimensioned stone.