Pump and probe waves in dynamic acousto-elasticity: Comprehensive description and comparison with nonlinear elastic theories

Standard nonlinear ultrasonic methods such as wave frequency mixing or resonance based measurements allow one to extract average, bulk variations of modulus and attenuation versus strain level. In contrast, dynamic acousto-elasticity (DAE) provides the elastic behavior over the entire dynamic cycle including hysteresis and memory effects, detailing the full nonlinear behavior under tension and compression. In this work, we address experimental difficulties and apply new processing methods, illustrating them with a Berea sandstone sample. A projection procedure is used to analyze the complex nonlinear signatures and extract the harmonic content. Amplitude dependences of the harmonic content are compared with existing models. We show that a combination of classical and hysteretic nonlinear models capture most of the observed phenomena. Some differences between existing models and experimental data are highlighted, however. A progressive decrease of the power-law amplitude dependence is found for harmonics larger than the second and for strains larger than 10^-6. This observation is related to the phenomenon of acoustic conditioning that brings the material to a metastable state for each new excitation amplitude. Analysis of the steady-state regime provides additional information regarding acoustic conditioning, i.e., a progressive decrease of the amplitude of odd harmonics during excitation time with a log(t)-dependence. This observation confirms that the harmonic content is affected by the conditioning. Experimental challenges addressed include the fact that the compressional mode used for DAE can be affected by bending/torsion modes: their influence is evaluated, and guidances are given to minimize effects.