Papers by Author: Che Hua Yang

Abstract: Wedge waves (WW) are guided acoustic waves propagating along the tip of a wedge, with energy tightly confined near the apex. Like Lamb waves, wedge waves with displacement field anti-symmetric about the mid-apex-plane are called anti-symmetric flexural (ASF) modes. This study is focused on exploring the dispersion behaviors of ASF modes propagating along a bilinear wedge (BW). A BW is wedge with a cross section of two apex angles, compared with a linear wedge (LW) having a single apex angle. In the literature, many studies regarding to the dispersion behaviors of ASF modes are reported for LW, but not for BW. In this study, a laser ultrasonic technique and finite element simulations are used to investigate the dispersion behavior of BW-ASF modes. It is found out that a BW-ASF mode is a result of mode coupling between the two LW-ASF modes of the same order corresponding to the two apex angles of the BW.

Abstract: A laser ultrasound technique (LUT) is reported for nondestructive characterization of hydrogen concentration (HC) in Zr-4 cladding tubes. With the LUT, ultrasonic waves propagating in the Zircaloy tubes with different HC are generated and detected remotely by optical means. By measuring the dispersion spectra with the LUT, relations between the dispersion spectra and the HC of the Zircaloy tubes are established. HC ranging from 0 to 1200 ppm in the Zircaloy tubes are successfully discriminated by the LUT with a resolution of 200 ppm.

Abstract: A new interference-based optical technique called in-plane displacement interferometer (IPDI) is introduced for the detection of in-plane (IP) motion of ultrasonic waves. The IPDI employs a tiny square indentation of about 30 microns in width on the sample surface and a relatively simple optical arrangement for the detection of IP motion of ultrasonics waves. With the IPDI, measurement of IP motions of Lamb waves propagating along a thin brass foil is demonstrated. Dispersion relations for the S0 mode dominated by in-plane motion in the low fd (frequency times thickness) regime is obtained with the IPDI.