Phase and group velocities for Lamb waves in DOP-26 iridium alloy sheet

The relatively coarse grain structure of iridium weldments limits the ultrasonic inspection of these structures to frequencies in the low megahertz range. As the material thickness is nominally 0.635 mm for clad vent set capsules, the low frequencies involved necessarily entail the generation of Lamb waves m the specimen. These waves are, of course, dispersive and detailed knowledge of both the phase and group velocities is required in order to determine accurately the location of flaws detected using Lamb waves. Purpose of this study is to elucidate the behavior of Lamb waves propagating in the capsule alloy and to quantify the velocities so that accurate flaw location is ensured. We describe a numerical technique for computing the phase velocities of Lamb waves (or of any other type of guided wave) and derive the group velocities from this information. A frequency-domain method is described for measuring group velocity when multiple Lamb modes are present and mutually interfering in the time domain, and experimental confirmation of the group velocity is presented for the capsule material.