Resonance for material analysis. I know, you’re wondering, “What is this guy thinking?” Material analysis has always lived in the Met Lab and tensile strength has always been determined through good old fashioned destructive testing. So, how does resonance fit in? Well, Resonance Ultrasound Spectroscopy, or RUS, is an application of resonance testing that is being used by many of the world’s premier material analysis labs and universities, but it is something that hasn’t really reached commercial laboratories as of yet.
Imagine if you could nondestructively determine the material constants, such as Young’s Modulus, Shear Modulus, Bulk Modulus, and even the Poisson’s ratio of a material sample by simply collecting the natural frequencies. What if it was possible to accurately predict the tensile strength of a dog-bone specimen without ever needing to actually destructively test it? The time savings alone is something to think about, but what else would this testing provide?