The objective of this thesis is to validate Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS) as a non-destructive evaluation tool that can be used to study effects of radiation on the mechanical properties of a material, mainly its elastic constants. RUS involves experimentally measuring the resonant frequencies of a sample and calculating the elastic constants based on these measurements. Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to get the frequencies of the modes of free vibration for the sample model. This result depends on the elastic constant values used in the FEM simulation. Studies were conducted to confirm the accuracy of the FEM model, and determine the right configuration and parameters to use for the simulation. Assuming uniform and isotropic elastic property changes, the effects of radiation damage can be quantified by obtaining a set of matching resonant frequencies between the experimental and FEM simulation results, before and after irradiating the sample. This is done by adjusting the elastic constant values used in the simulation so that the results match with the experimentally obtained resonant frequencies. With powerful enough equipment, even real time monitoring is possible in harsh environments, thus pointing out imminent failure.

The purpose of this thesis is to study Resonance Ultrasound Spectroscopy(RUS) and it's potential to evaluate the change in interfacial thermal resistance due to irradiation. Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy is conventionally used to determine the material properties of elastic bodies. It is a nondestructive technique that is very capable of extracting the elastic constants for a complete anisotropic material. Finite Element Method(FEM) is used to determine the natural frequency of a hollow cylinder. FEM was used due to the shape of the object. An experimental system was developed to capture the resonant frequencies of a hollow cylinder which is similar to Molybdenum-99 target. After successfully determining the resonance frequencies from the spectra, the frequencies were inverted to the elastic constants using the finite element model. Radiation effects on elastic constants was also studied. An investigation was made to assess the usefulness of RUS in evaluating radiation damage of materials. An experimental study was also completed to analyze the differences in RUS spectra in a contact pressure analysis between two cylinders of Molybdenum-99 target.

This thesis demonstrates the practicability of using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS) in combination with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to determine the size and location of a defect in a material of known geometry and physical constants. Defects were analyzed by comparing the actual change in frequency spectrum measured by RUS to the change in frequency spectrum calculated using FEA. FEA provides a means of determining acceptance/rejection criteria for Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). If FEA models of the object are analyzed with defects in probable locations; the resulting resonant frequency spectra will match the frequency spectra of actual objects with similar defects. By analyzing many FEA-generated frequency spectra, it is possible to identify patterns in behavior of the resonant frequencies of particular modes based on the nature of the defect (location, size, depth, etc.). Therefore, based on the analysis of sufficient FEA models, it should be possible to determine nature of defects in a particular object from the measured resonant frequency. Experiments were conducted on various materials and geometries comparing resonant frequency spectra measured using RUS to frequency spectra calculated using FEA. Measured frequency spectra matched calculated frequency spectra for steel specimens both before and after introduction of a thin cut. Location and depth of the cut were successfully identified based on comparison of measured to calculated resonant frequencies. However, analysis of steel specimens with thin cracks, and of ceramic specimens with thin cracks, showed significant divergence between measured and calculated frequency spectra. Therefore, it was not possible to predict crack depth or location for these specimens. This thesis demonstrates that RUS in combination with FEA can be used as an NDT method for detection and analysis of cracks in various materials, and for various geometries, but with some limitations. Experimental results verify that cracks can be detected, and their depth and location determined with reasonable accuracy. However, experimental results also indicate that there are limits to the applicability of such a method, the primary one being a lower limit to the size of crack - especially thickness of the crack - for which this method can be applied.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is becoming increasing popular owing to its ability to manufacture geometrically complex parts and produce customer-designed parts faster than traditional machining. One of the challenges of creating high quality AM parts is that the AM process often produces defects that are difficult to detect. A number of techniques have been used to evaluate the quality of AM parts, such as traditional ultrasonic testing and x-ray micro computed tomography (micro-CT) scans. These methods are not ideal, as traditional ultrasonic testing can require multiple tests to evaluate the entire part, while micro-CT has difficulty detecting small defects in large parts. Resonance-based ultrasonic methods have the advantage of only requiring one testing configuration to evaluate the entire part. Nonlinear resonance ultrasound spectroscopy (NRUS) is a resonance-based nondestructive testing (NDT) technique for material characterization that is especially sensitive to small-scale imperfections such as microscopic cracks. Previous NRUS tests have shown correlations between the parameters measured by NRUS and the fatigue life (fatigue endurance) of a small set of samples, indicating the potential of NRUS for evaluating the build quality of AM parts as related to their performance. However, these measurements on AM metals show large variability due to the experimental setup used. Typical NRUS tests involve bonding the sample to an excitation source that induces vibration in the sample. Unfortunately, the bonding introduces artifacts in the measurements leading to the observed large measurement variability. In this study, we seek to evaluate the use of non-contact excitation sources for NRUS testing with the goal of improving the measurement repeatability. We compare the NRUS measurements using contact and non-contact excitations on wrought and AM 316L stainless steel samples with several different heat treatments. This study suggests the improved repeatability of linear resonance frequency measurements when using an air-coupled transducer. However, the intensity of resulting excitations is not sufficient for NRUS measurements, which require higher excitation voltages. We propose two additional approaches for non-contact NRUS measurements: one using a high-power laser and the other using an air cavity.

This multi-contributed volume provides a practical, applications-focused introduction to nonlinear acoustical techniques for nondestructive evaluation. Compared to linear techniques, nonlinear acoustical/ultrasonic techniques are much more sensitive to micro-cracks and other types of small distributed damages. Most materials and structures exhibit nonlinear behavior due to the formation of dislocation and micro-cracks from fatigue or other types of repetitive loadings well before detectable macro-cracks are formed. Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) tools that have been developed based on nonlinear acoustical techniques are capable of providing early warnings about the possibility of structural failure before detectable macro-cracks are formed. This book presents the full range of nonlinear acoustical techniques used today for NDE. The expert chapters cover both theoretical and experimental aspects, but always with an eye towards applications. Unlike other titles currently available, which treat nonlinearity as a physics problem and focus on different analytical derivations, the present volume emphasizes NDE applications over detailed analytical derivations. The introductory chapter presents the fundamentals in a manner accessible to anyone with an undergraduate degree in Engineering or Physics and equips the reader with all of the necessary background to understand the remaining chapters. This self-contained volume will be a valuable reference to graduate students through practising researchers in Engineering, Materials Science, and Physics. Represents the first book on nonlinear acoustical techniques for NDE applications Emphasizes applications of nonlinear acoustical techniques Presents the fundamental physics and mathematics behind nonlinear acoustical phenomenon in a simple, easily understood manner Covers a variety of popular NDE techniques based on nonlinear acoustics in a single volume