A new technique for measuring the acoustic nonlinearity of materials using Rayleigh waves

This note presents a procedure to generate nonlinear Rayleigh surface waves without having to drive the transmitting piezoelectric transducer at high voltages; driving at low voltages limits the excitation of the intrinsic nonlinearity of the piezoelectric transducer element, and enables an efficient measurement procedure to isolate inherent material nonlinearity. The capabilities of this proposed technique are demonstrated by measuring the material nonlinearity of aluminum alloy 2024 and 6061 plates with Rayleigh surface waves.