An ultrasonic penetrometer may include an enclosure, an ultrasonic sensor, and a rod. The enclosure may include a channel having a first end and a second end. The ultrasonic sensor may be provided at the first end of the channel and may be configured to generate an ultrasound signal through the second end of the channel. An output from the ultrasound sensor may be used to determine a thickness or stiffness of sediment. The rod may have a proximal end facing the ultrasonic sensor and a distal end opposite the proximal end. The rod may be configured to move relative to the enclosure. The distal end may be configured to contact the sediment. The enclosure may be configured to be fluid-tight relative to an exterior of the enclosure such that the generated ultrasound signal travels in a single medium.

A method for determining the prestress force of a connection component (10) is proposed. In the method, ultrasonic signals (22) are introduced into the connection component (10) and ultrasonic echoes (24) of the ultrasonic signals (22) are received again. The method comprises the following steps: a) introducing a longitudinal ultrasonic signal and determining a first signal time of flight FTOF.sub.L of the longitudinal ultrasonic signal until the reception of an echo of the longitudinal ultrasonic signal, b) introducing a transverse ultrasonic signal and determining a second signal time of flight FTOF.sub.T of the transverse ultrasonic signal until the reception of an echo of the transverse ultrasonic signal, and c) determining an effective temperature T.sub.eff and the prestress force of the connection component (10) on the basis of the first signal time of flight FTOF.sub.L, the second signal time of flight FTOF.sub.T, previously determined reference data and calibration factors using the assumption that a prestress force F.sub.L ascertained using the first signal time of flight FTOF.sub.L and a prestress force F.sub.T ascertained using the second signal time of flight FTOF.sub.T are equal in magnitude,
wherein steps a) and b) are carried out successively in any desired order or in parallel. A further aspect of the invention relates to a device for carrying out the method.

The disclosed apparatus, systems and methods relate to technology that provides a method for the assessment of the polymerization of a sample, e.g., whole blood or blood plasma coagulation, by a non-contact acoustic tweezing device via the application of a sweeping frequency to the levitating sample and the corresponding assessment of extracted sample parameters.

This method, for determining the local intensity (I.sub.0) of an acoustic field propagating in a target region of a soft solid, at a position located within said target region, includes at least the following steps: determining (102) a value of an ultrasound attenuation coefficient (α) of the soft body in the target region; determining (104) a value of the shear modulus (μ) of the soft body in the target region; determining (106) a value of the speed of sound (c) in the target region of the soft body; and building (110), with the values determined in steps a), b) and c), a viscoelastic model (M) of a steady-state displacement induced by an acoustic field having a time invariant shape or a viscoelastic model of a difference between two steady-state displacements induced by an acoustic field having a time invariant shape. Moreover, this method also includes the following steps: applying (112) to the target region the acoustic field emitted by an ultrasound source, for a duration such that the acoustic field induces a steady-state localized deformation (Formula (I)) of the soft body in the target region; measuring (114) at least one steady state displacement induced by the acoustic field at a given position in the target region; and computing (116) the amplitude of the intensity of the acoustic field at said given position by inverting the viscoelastic model (M) at said given position, for the displacement(s) measured at step f).

A non-destructive measurement apparatus and method for quantitatively measuring texture of a food snack is disclosed. The apparatus includes a laser generating tool, an ultrasound excitation device, an acoustic capturing device, an ultrasound capturing device and a data processing unit. The laser generating tool and the ultrasound excitation tool direct energy towards a food snack placed on a surface and produce an acoustic signal and an ultrasound signal. The data processing unit further comprises a digital signal processing module that processes the received acoustic signal and ultrasound signal. A statistical processing module further filters the acoustic signal from the data processing unit and generates a quantitative acoustic model for texture attributes such as hardness and fracturability. The quantitative model is correlated with a qualitative texture measurement from a descriptive expert panel. Texture of food snacks are quantitatively measured with the quantitative acoustic model.

Disclosed are a linkage device, a transceiver module and a plane stress field measuring device and method capable of achieving synchronous adjustment of distance and angle, and relates to the field of ultrasonic non-destructive testing. The existing technical means for measuring plane stress in the field of ultrasonic testing has the shortcomings that the same testing is only applicable for single materials and the deflection angles of transmitting and receiving transducers are inconsistent. In the application, the linkage device designed by comprising a distance adjusting screw, an angle adjusting screw, a left connecting rod, a right connecting rod, a shaft column and a column lock is adopted, and based on the linkage device, the transceiver module designed by comprising a receiving end wedge, a receiving probe, a transmitting end wedge and a transmitting probe is additionally arranged; based on the transceiver module, the measuring device designed by comprising a pulse transmitting device, an amplifying device and a data acquisition device is additionally arranged, and the stress measuring method applicable for the stress measuring device is provided; and the distance and deflection angle between the receiving probe and the transmitting probe of the detection are adjusted according to a tested part. The application applies to stress measurement in the manufacturing process of mechanical components.

Described are an apparatus, computer program product, and associated methods for shaped waveform acoustic interrogation of substances and materials to determine one or more properties of the materials or substances. In some embodiments, a shaped waveform is formed by summing two or more different waveforms and an acoustic wave is generated according to the shaped waveform. The acoustic wave is transmitted by one or more transmitting transducers through the substance or material and received by one or more receiving transducers. The shaped waveform acoustic wave can have a duration or a period that is less than about 20 μs and can comprise predetermined frequency content. Characteristics of the shaped waveform acoustic wave, as received at the receiving transducer(s), including characteristics such as amplitude, frequency, time of flight, etc., can be associated with said one or more properties of the substance or material to provide for real-time monitoring of these properties.

Object analysis comprising measuring a frequency-dependent natural oscillation behavior of the object by dynamically-mechanically exciting the object in a defined frequency range (f) by means of generating a body oscillation by applying a test signal, and detecting a body oscillation generated in the object on account of the exciting. Moreover, the method involves simulating a frequency-dependent natural oscillation behavior for the object by generating a virtual digital representation of the object, and carrying out a finite element analysis on the basis of the virtual representation comprising dynamically exciting, in a simulated manner, the virtual representation into a virtual frequency range for generating a virtual body oscillation, calculating the virtual body oscillation generated in the object on account of the exciting in a simulated manner, and deriving an object state on the basis of a comparison of the measured natural oscillation behavior and the simulated frequency-dependent natural oscillation behavior.

The invention comprises a device and method to estimate the elasticity of soft elastic solids from surface wave measurements. The method is non-destructive, reliable and repeatable. The final device is low-cost and portable. It is based in audio-frequency shear wave propagation in elastic soft solids. Within this frequency range, shear wavelength is centimeter sized. Thus, the experimental data is usually collected in the near-field of the source. Therefore, an inversion algorithm taking into account near-field effects was developed for use with the device. Example applications are shown in beef samples, tissue mimicking materials and in vivo skeletal muscle of healthy volunteers.

The present disclosure relates to an ultrasonic device for real-time and nondestructive assessment of extracellular matrix stiffness, and the method of making and using the novel ultrasonic device.