An ultrasonic method for determination of elastic moduli, density, attenuation and thickness of a polymer coating on...

An ultrasonic method proposed by us for determination of the complete set of acoustical and geometrical properties of a thin isotropic layer between semispaces (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102 (1997) 3467) is extended to determination of the properties of a coating on a thin plate. The method allows simultaneous determination of the coating thickness, density, elastic moduli and attenuation (longitudinal and shear) from normal and oblique incidence reflection (transmission) frequency spectra. Reflection (transmission) from the coated plate is represented as a function of six nondimensional parameters of the coating which are determined from two experimentally measured spectra: one at normal and one at oblique incidence. The introduction of the set of nondimensional parameters allows one to transform the reconstruction process from one search in a six-dimensional space to two searches in three-dimensional spaces (one search for normal incidence and one for oblique). Thickness, density, and longitudinal and shear elastic moduli of the coating are calculated from the nondimensional parameters determined. The sensitivity of the method to individual properties and its stability against experimental noise are studied and the inversion algorithm is accordingly optimized. An example of the method and experimental measurement for comparison is given for a polypropylene coating on a steel foil.