Ultrasonic Characterization of Texture in Pure and Alloyed Zirconium

Recently, we have developed a method to relate the angular dependence of ultrasonic velocities to the five expansion coefficients of the crystallographic orientation distribution function (CODF) of hexagonal materials with orthorhombic macroscopic symmetry.1 The ultrasonic velocity measurements are performed with an acoustic microscope on one, two, or three of the principal planes of symmetry using one or more ultrasonic modes. In this paper, the theory of ultrasonic measurement of texture is reviewed, and we present data showing that it can be applied to two-phase alloys, when the primary phase makes up most of the material.