Acoustic material signature of a layered plate

A technique is presented for the theoretical calculation of the acoustic material signature (AMS) of a multilayered plate with its bottom surface free of traction. The layers are composed of homogeneous isotropic linearly elastic materials and are assumed to be firmly bonded at the interfaces. The plate model can serve to represent either a self supporting membrane, or a multilayered composite with extensive debonding on a plane parallel to the layers. Calculated AMS curves are presented for a uniform plate, a two layered plate and a two layered half-space at 60 MHz exciting frequency. The striking differences in these curves indicate the possibility of using them as quantitative diagnostics for extensive debonding in a layered specimen.