Determinations of anisotropic elastic constants using laser-generated surface waves

Abstract

This paper studied the recovery of elastic constants of anisotropic solids from measured surface wave energy velocities. The calculations of surface wave phase and energy velocities of anisotropic solids were based on an efficient forward formalism. In the experiment, the surface waves were generated by a pulsed laser and detected by using the PS/PR technique, where the source and receiver were located on the same surface of a specimen. The inverse problem was solved successfully by the simplex optimization method. Following the simplex iteration rules, the orientation and the elastic constants can be recovered from the measured surface wave energy velocities. The wave fronts and the caustic effects of the skimming shear waves have also been observed in the laser ultrasound experiment.