Study on Measurement of Group Velocity of Lamb Waves in Shape Memory Alloy Sheets

This paper describes the nondestructive evaluation of microstructure using laser-excited Lamb waves to detect the phase transformation in NiTi shape memory alloy sheets. Lamb waves were applied in the NiTi sheet using a pulse laser beam. Piezoelectricity transducers were used to receive the Lamb waves, the group velocities of which were measured using a time-frequency analysis method at different temperatures. Results show that a marked variation in the group velocity occurs during the phase transformation in the NiTi alloy. The dependence of group velocity on temperature provides a effective means of inspecting microstructure transformation in NiTi alloys.