The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 18, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 11, 2001
Guy Lamouche, Montreal, CA;
Andre Moreau, Saint-Bruno, CA;
Martin Lord, Beloeil, CA;
Daniel Levesque, Terrebonne, CA;
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, CA;
Abstract
A method is disclosed for evaluating the physical properties of a sample, for example, the grain size in a polycrystalline material. An ultrasound field is generated in a local region of the sample with a non-contact source, such as a pulsed laser, such that the generated ultrasound diffuses away from said local region. After waiting until the generated ultrasound field has reached a diffusion regime, the resulting ultrasound field is measured with a non-contact detector. Parameters are adjusted in a mathematical model describing the predicted behaviour of the ultrasound field in the diffusion regime to fit the detected ultrasound field to the mathematical model. In this way, parameters dependent on the physical properties of the sample, such as the diffusion coefficient and absorption coefficient, can be derived. The grain size, for example, can be estimated from these parameters preferably by calibrating the diffusion coefficient to grain size.