Theoretical and experimental works on acoustoelasticity are briefly generalized. Studies conducted and scientific results obtained at the S. P. Timoshenko Institute of Mechanics and E. O. Paton Institute of Electric Welding of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine are highlighted. Special features of these works and their difference from those of other authors are pointed out. The basic principles and laws governing the propagation of longitudinal, shear, and surface waves in bi- and triaxially stressed bodies are briefly stated with regard for the orthotropy and nonlinear properties of the material. The experimentally proven principles and laws for elastic waves propagating in initially stressed bodies are formulated. The physical fundamentals of the ultrasonic nondestructive technique for determining bi- and triaxial stresses in solids are described. The determination of bi- and triaxial residual stresses in specimens and structural members is demonstrated by examples. The basic principles of the related (dielectric and electromagnetic) methods for stress analysis of polymeric materials are stated. The application of the electromagnetic method to the stress analysis of some polymeric materials is considered

The Physical Fundamentals of the Ultrasonic Nondestructive Stress Analysis of Solids

In this paper a new approach for using acoustic measurements to evaluate residual stresses in the presence of unknown material property variation is presented. Procedures previously applied to the evaluation of stress with acoustic measurements are reviewed, and it is shown that these involve using measurements with bulk waves propagating along the normal to the surface of a plate and do not provide sufficient information to separate the influences of stress and material property variations. To overcome this fundamental limitation, an alternative theory is developed that governs the propagation of shear waves polarized horizontally with respect to the surface of a plate (SH waves), but propagating at oblique angles with respect to the surface normal. The question of separating the effects of residual stress and material properties on acoustic velocity is addressed in detail. A practical experimental procedure is developed that permits the evaluation of the in‐plane components of the principal stresses in a plate exhibiting an unknown inhomogeneous initial anisotropy caused by material texture or microstructure. The procedure is then verified experimentally using an aluminum specimen with a known residual stress state, but unknown initial anisotropy.

Determination of in‐plane residual stress states in plates using horizontally polarized shear waves

New equations are proposed for stress measurements in orthotropic materials by ultrasonic birefringence technique. Intensity of stress-induced anisotropy and its principal direction are related to the applied stress through three coefficients, in contrast to only one coefficient required for isotropic materials. Experiments of ultrasonic birefringence were carried out to determine the three coefficients in a plate of aluminum alloy with a slight orthotropy originated from roll working. Anisotropy induced by uniaxial stress and rotation of the principal axis were observed in several specimens with different directions of rolling. The results are in good agreement with the curves theoretically predicted by the equations proposed here, showing the validity and usefulness of these equations for stress measurements in materials conventionally used.

Stress-acoustic relations for stress measurement by ultrasonic technique

Ultrasonic travel times obtained with the LcR wave are able to distinguish between stress relieved and non-stress relieved 13 mm ( 1 2 in ) thick, steel plates. Two 1.22 m (48 in) square plates were patch welded in the centre to create a residual stress field, and one of the plates was stress relieved. The LcR ultrasonic technique sends a critically refracted longitudinal wave travelling beneath the plate surface, and the stresses in the plate affect the travel times through the acoustoelastic relationship. The LCR travel-time measurements not only distinguished between residual stress states in the plate, but also gave some information on their distribution and magnitude. Neither texture nor localized residual stresses affect the results. These findings demonstrate the potential usefulness of the technique for evaluating the state of post-weld heat treatment in structural steels.

Application of the LCR ultrasonic technique for evaluation of post-weld heat treatment in steel plates

This paper explores the feasibility of the acoustoelastic birefringence method for monitoring the axial stresses in the railroad rails. An electromagnetic-acoustic transducer (EMAT) is incorporated with a superheterodyne-phase-sensitive detector to accomplish noncontacting stress measurements. Two different measurement techniques are employed and compared to each other, both of which use the polarized shear waves propagating transversely to the rail axis. One is the pulsed resonance spectroscopy technique applied to the web, where the surfaces are nearly parallel to each other and support the thickness oscillations. The other method detects the small phase shift that occurs along with the stress application. The phase shifts were measured for the discrete reflection echoes that traveled long distances (top-to-bottom echo and multiple echoes in the head of the rail). The compressive axial load was raised up to 60 tons with the Shinkansen (bullet train) rail samples, which exceeds the buckling load of long rails. Both techniques showed a linear response to stress with a sufficient sensitivity and robustness, which promise the development of a practical railroad maintenance technology. The effects of the liftoff and the residual stress distribution are determined.

Advanced Ultrasonic Method for Measuring Rail Axial Stresses with Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer

The acoustoelastic stress analysis is based on the fact that an initially isotropic material becomes anisotropic under stress. The birefringent effect for polarized ultrasonic shear waves in the stressed material will then be similar to the photoelastic effect in which a light wave and a transparent model specimen are used. In this paper, the velocity differences of acoustical, perpendicularly polarized waves are measured directly by a ‘sing-around’ method using a 5-MHz shear-type transducer. The residual-stress distribution in a mild-steel circular plate with a concentrically patch-welded joint is measured by this method. The acoustoelastic coefficient is obtained separately by uniaxial testing of the base material. The results show that the acoustical stress measurement, carried out nondestructively, agrees well with those obtained by conventional destructive methods as well as with theoretical predictions.

Acoustoelastic stress analysis of residual stress in a patch-welded disk

X-ray stress analysis is a standard nondestructive stress-measurement technique, but its use is limited in the sense that only a surface layer is surveyed. Recently, acoustoelasticity has emerged as a technique for nondestructive stress analysis. Acoustoelasticity makes use of stress-induced acoustic-birefringent effects. It gives stress distributions averaged through the thickness of a specimen. This technique is attractive because it does not require a transparent plastic model as photoelasticity does. However, much should be done before this method is established as a standard nondestructive technique of stress analysis. The most important among them is to separate stress-induced birefringence from that introduced by texture structure. For special cases, such as axisymmetric stress distributions and when a stress-free region is knowna priori, residual-stress distributions can be evaluated nondestructively. In this paper, we measured residual-stress distribution in a wide-flanged rolled beam by using a recently developed T-type transducer. The results were compared to those obtained from conventional destructive methods.

H. Toda

Papers

Acoustoelastic stress analysis of residual stress in a patch-welded disk

Nondestructive residual-stress measurement in a wide-flanged rolled beam by acoustoelasticity