ACOUSTIC METHOD FOR ESTIMATING MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF A MATERIAL AND APPARATUS THEREFOR

摘要

The invention describes a method for estimating the time varying mechanical properties of a material comprising: - propagating acoustic waves through a sample of said material; - measuring signals corresponding to said acoustic waves after they propagate in said sample; the method characterised by: - comparing attributes from said measured signals with attributes from corresponding signals provided by a calculating model, said calculating model accounting for at least initially estimated acoustic properties of said material; - using the differences between said measured and calculated signals to update said initially estimated acoustic properties of said material in the calculating model; - processing N iterations of said comparison and updating either until said differences between measured and calculated signals are within a given tolerance factor or when said number i reaches a prescribed maximum; - calculating the time varying mechanical properties of said material from said final iterated acoustic properties. The invention also describes an apparatus therefor.