Measurements of the ultrasound propagation velocity in different materials

Most applications for underwater acoustics, nondestructive testing of materials and biomedical ultrasound require an accurate measurement of the ultrasound velocity in water and other materials since the velocity of ultrasound waves is used to determine the related distance. The objective of this work was to determine the velocity of ultrasound waves in different materials such as water, rubber and Plexiglas using piezoelectric transducer. The experimental techniques and system were developed to obtain ultrasound velocity in different materials in the unit of meter/second (m/s). The implementation of the ultrasound velocity measurement utilizes a pulse-echo technique using a set of acoustic transducers with three different resonance frequencies, 2.25 MHz, 3.50 MHz, and 5.0 MHz. To verify the performance of the experimental techniques and system, the measured ultrasound velocities were compared with the theoretical values. The results show that the experimental values were in good agreement with theoretical results. In addition, the results indicate that the velocity of ultrasound waves in water and in other materials is frequency-independent.