The Evaluation of Partially Degraded Material Using Nonlinear Propagation Characteristics of Ultrasonic Wave

Abstract

In this paper, the nonlinear behavior of ultrasonic wave in partially degraded material is considered. For this aim, FDM(finite difference method) model for the nonlinear wave equation was developed with the restriction to the 1-D longitudinal wave motion and how the partial degradation in material contributes to the detected nonlinear parameter was analyzed quantitatively. In order to verify the rightness of this simulation method, the relation between the detected nonlinear parameter and the continuous distribution of degradation obtained from simulation was compared with experiment results and the simulation and experiment results showed similar tendency. It can be known from simulation result that the degree of degradation, the range of degradation and the continuous distribution of degradation have strong correlation with the detected nonlinear parameter. As it was possible in these simulations that only special part is assumed as degraded one, the quantitative evaluation of partially degraded material may be obtained by using this method.