An Improved Weighting Method for Inversely Determining Elastic Constants of Coating Layers from Dispersion Curves of Surface Acoustic Waves

This paper investigates the inversion of elastic constants of a coating layer from measured dispersion curves of a layered half-space sample. A systematic analysis on the sensitivity of dispersion curves is performed and the results provide important information in constructing a better inversion process. Numerical simulation has been given to demonstrate several possibilities for obtaining accurate elastic constants from the measured dispersion data over different frequency domains. Experiments have also been carried out using broadband Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] focusing transducers and their surface wave measurement system over a wide frequency range of 4 ~ 120 MHz. Nickel coating layers electroplated on thick glass substrates are tested for the inversion. It is observed that the proposed inversion method, which carefully chooses the dispersion data at specific frequency ranges as well as adding some weightings to them, is indeed significantly improve the accuracy and convergence of the obtained elastic constants of the coated nickel layers. Young’s modulus of the coated nickel layers is also measured by a nano-indentation system and the results show good agreement with the data determined by the proposed inversion method.