Experimental observations of nonlinear effects of the Lamb waves

The experimental observations of nonlinear effects of the primary Lamb waves have been reported. Firstly, the brief descriptions have been made for the nonlinear acoustic measurement system developed by Ritec. The detailed considerations for the acoustic experiment system established for observing of the nonlinear effects of the primary Lamb waves have been carried out. Especially, the analysis focuses on the time-domain responses of second harmonics of the primary Lame waves by employing a straightforward model. Based on the existence conditions of strong nonlinearity of the primary Lamb waves, the wedge transducers are designed to generate and detect the primary and secondary waves on the surface of an aluminum sheet. For the different distances between the transmitting and receiving wedge transducers, the amplitudes of the primary waves and the second harmonics on the sheet surface have been measured within a specified frequency range. In the immediate vicinity of the driving frequency, where the primary and the double frequency Lamb waves have the same phase velocities, the quantitative relations of second-harmonic amplitudes with the propagation distance have been analyzed. It is experimentally verified that the second harmonics of the primary Lamb waves do have a cumulative growth effect along with the propagation distance.