Advancing elastic wave imaging using thermal susceptibility of acoustic nonlinearity

Abstract

Despite proven effectiveness in characterizing material degradation and embryonic defects, the use of acoustic nonlinearity is restricted by its intrinsic vulnerability to measurement contamination and to fluctuations in ambient temperature in particular. Analytically, we shed light on the susceptibility of acoustic nonlinearity embodied in elastic waves to ambient temperature. Rather than eliminating or compensating for such thermal susceptibility, we subtly exploit it to advance nonlinear elastic wave imaging. Experimental validation corroborates theoretical prediction, spotlighting the capacity of the approach to improve the precision of material characterization using nonlinear elastic waves and therefore to enhance the accuracy of anomaly imaging when other nonlinearity sources interfere with the extraction of nonlinear attributes of elastic waves.