Ultrasonic spectroscopy of imperfect contact interfaces between a layer and two solids

Ultrasonic waves reflected from the front and back surfaces of a thin layer are often not separated in the time domain, and interfere. The spectrum of the resulting interference signal depends on (a) the thickness of the layer and the elastic moduli and density of the layer and the surrounding material (substrates), and (b) properties of the layer/substrate interface which can be described in terms of the interfacial stiffness. In this paper the effect of interfacial stiffness is isolated by considering the ultrasonic wave interaction with a solid layer compressed between two substrates of the same material. Since the layer and the substrate have identical properties the effect of impedance difference on the layer reflection vanishes. An aluminum system is selected for the experiment; the contacting surfaces are roughened and varying pressure is applied to model imperfect interface changes. It is shown both theoretically and experimentally that the contact pressure increase results in increase of the interfacial stiffness and spectral minima shift to higher frequency. A simple analytical expression relating the reflection minimum position to the interfacial stiffness is derived and shows good agreement with experimental results. It is shown that in the high-interfacial-stiffness limit the resonance minima positions are given by the condition h=λ/4+nλ/2, n=0,1,2,… . In the limit of low interfacial stiffness the first minimum shifts to zero and higher order resonances are given by h=nλ/2. Since the resonance minima measurements can be done with high precision it is proposed to use the frequency minimum shift for determination of interfacial stiffness and, consequently, the quality of the interfacial contact.