Two-Dimensional FEM Simulation of Ultrasonic Wave Propagation in Isotropic Solid Media using COMSOL

B. Ghose[1], K. Balasubramaniam[2], C.V. Krishnamurthy[3], and A.S. Rao[1]
[1] High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Pune, Maharashtra, India
[2] Center for Non Destructive Evaluation, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
[3] Department of Physics, IIT Madras,Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Published in 2010

Ultrasonic Testing (UT) is one of the important Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) technique widely used for characterisation of materials as well as detection and characterisation of flaws present in the material used in various industries. There are many different important materials like metals, metallic alloys, rubber, composites etc used in aerospace industries is being inspected using UT as NDE technique. Understanding of ultrasonic wave propagation and its capability for flaw detection is an important aspect for proper evaluation of wave characteristics for characterisation of material or detection of flaws. This paper presents the Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation of ultrasonic wave propagation in isotropic solid media using COMSOL. The ultrasonic wave characteristics like wave velocity (phase and group velocities in case of bulk wave and guided wave respectively), frequency content, and wave amplitude of the onward and reflected propagated wave in different material with respect to various important simulation parameters like time step, element length has been studied.