Quantifying the coupling strength of adhesively bonded materials by investigating mode repulsion regions

In the field of non-destructive testing, Lamb waves are often used for material characterisation. The increasing computational capabilities further enable complex and detailed simulations to predict the material behaviour in reality. Since adhesive bonding of different materials is a widely used method in modern applications, a reliable measurement system to determine the quality of these adhesive bonds is needed. Investigations of the dispersive behaviour of acoustic waves in adhesively bonded multi-layered waveguides show mode repulsions in the dispersion diagrams in regions where the modes of the single materials would otherwise intersect. In previous works, changes of the distance between those modes with respect to the bonding quality are observed. The experimental data for this investigation is generated using pulsed laser radiation to excite broadband acoustic waves in plate like specimens which are detected by a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer. Numerical data is generated using simulations via a semi-analytical finite element method. Using a combination of experimental and numerical data, the present work introduces an approach to determine a parameter which indicates the bonding quality in relation to an ideal material coupling.