P3G-1 The Evaluation of Nonpermanent Acoustic Bonding Materials Incorporating Micron Size Particles

Nonpermanent acoustic bonding agents are important for the transfer of acoustic energy between materials without permanently bonding them. Their use extends over a wide range of applications which encompass industrial, medical, and research applications. In the case of bonding solids, nonpermanent bonding agents have elastic properties well below those of the solids to which they often are bonded. By increasing the density of the nonpermanent bonding agents their elastic properties come closer to those of the solid materials. The work reported here characterizes the transfer efficiency of selectively loaded nonpermanent bonding agents in the frequency region from 200 MHz to 600 MHz using two fused quartz blocks with zinc oxide transducers formed at each end and the loaded bond material applied between the blocks opposite the transducers. The nonpermanent bonding materials which could be most conveniently loaded with fine particles were waxes and resins. Micron size particles of aluminum oxide, diamond and silicon carbide, were the main particles used. The transfer efficiency is compared to both a bond condition without particle loading and an optical bond condition.