Transmission of Elastic Pulses in Metal Rods

Abstract

Pulses are generated at one end of a cylindrical rod by a quartz crystal. A second crystal at the opposite end is used as a detector. The transmission time is studied as a function of rod length, diameter, and material. In general a single input pulse gives rise to several pulses at the detector. For the dimensions and rise times used, all of the arrivals are explicable in terms of transmission with either the dilatational or rotational velocity of the material or a combination of both. The rotational and dilatational velocities can be computed from these data and hence the elastic constants of the material.