Abstract
The time-of-flight method has been used to measure the longitudinal and shear wave speeds in six polymers (polyether ether ketone [PEEK], PEEK with 10% carbon fibers, polytetrafluoroethylene [PTFE], high-density polyethylene [HDPE], ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene [UHMWPE], and polycarbonate) and two metals (6061-T6 aluminum and copper). Using transducers producing a nominally sinusoidal input resulted in no indication of a longitudinal dispersion effect that might lead to different longitudinal sound speed being measured as a function of sample thickness. The analysis of the experimental errors showed that, as might be expected, testing thicker samples in using this time-of-flight method lowers the measurement uncertainty, provided that the signal is not too attenuated by the generally highly attenuating polymer samples. It is recommended that when available, samples of polymer greater than 9mm thick are used for generating accurate sound-speed data.
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Rae, P.J., Brown, E.N. Some Observations on Measuring Sound Speeds in Polymers Using Time-of-Flight. Exp Tech 40, 1085–1097 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40799-016-0109-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40799-016-0109-6