Influence of low-frequency parameter changes on nonlinear vibro-acoustic wave modulations used for crack detection

The use of vibro-acoustic modulation is an effective nonlinear and nondestructive approach to the detection and monitoring of cracks in fatigued, defective, and fractured materials. However, the vibro-acoustic modulation results strongly depend on choice of the testing parameters. To implement this technique for additional applications, the effect of variation in the test parameters must be well understood. This study investigates the influence of variation in the amplitude and frequency of pumping (low-frequency vibration) signals on the modulation. We apply two kinds of probing excitations, sine-wave and swept-signal excitations, and we measure the modulation intensity variation with changes in the relevant parameters to observe their influence on the modulations. Dynamic strain measurement of the crack area is utilized to analyze the relation between the degree of crack opening/closing and the modulation on the crack interface. The results indicate that the probing amplitude has little effect on the modulation, and furthermore, the sweep-signal excitation technique can be used to select the proper probing frequency. The results also indicate that there is a critical pumping strain value (epsilon(c)) for the crack samples. When the pumping strain reaches this critical value, the modulation reaches a maximum. However, the opening/closing area cannot increase any more even if the pumping amplitude further increases, and thus, the modulation does not change. The extent of the crack opening/closing also varies with the pumping frequency. Our results suggest that increased sensitivity to crack detection can be achieved with the use of the resonance frequency as the pumping frequency in vibro-acoustic modulation tests.