Contact Pressure Measurements by Means of Ultrasonic Waves : On a Method of Quantitative Measurement

A quantitative measurement of contact pressure by means of ultrasonic waves has been proposed to measure the contact pressure distribution between two elastic beams. At first, in a new proposed calibration method, the relation between mean contact pressure and sound pressure of reflected waves is obtained by using calibration blocks made of the same material and height as the beams. After such preparation, both sides of the laminated beams are compressed under locally uniform pressure, and the sound pressure of reflected waves is measured. From these relations, the contact pressure in beams is directly obtained. It is clarified that the experimental results agree approximately with the theoretical ones and the proposed ultrasonic method is practically useful.