Absolute measurement of ultrasonic non-linearity parameter at contact interface

Non-linear interaction of waves with contact interfaces has been widely applied in non-destructive evaluation fields such as bonding quality evaluation, and the detection of closed microcracks and composite delamination. This paper proposes an absolute measurement of the ultrasonic non-linearity parameter using a piezoelectric detection method for two aluminum alloy blocks of different lengths. The results of a two-dimensional finite element method model verified by models for hard and soft contact interfaces, depending on the interface property, were compared with the measured non-linearity parameter. The measured values show good agreement with the modelled results, indicating good potential for measuring the non-linearity parameter at interfaces experimentally and numerically.