Coating thickness affects surface stress measurement of brush electro-plating nickel coating using Rayleigh wave approach

A surface ultrasonic wave approach was presented for measuring surface stress of brush electro-plating nickel coating specimen, and the influence of coating thickness on surface stress measurement was discussed. In this research, two Rayleigh wave transducers with 5 MHz frequency were employed to collect Rayleigh wave signals of coating specimen with different static tensile stresses and different coating thickness. The difference in time of flight between two Rayleigh wave signals was determined based on normalized cross correlation function. The influence of stress on propagation velocity of Rayleigh wave and the relationship between the difference in time of flight and tensile stress that corresponded to different coating thickness were discussed. Results indicate that inhomogeneous deformation of coating affects the relationship between the difference in time of flight and tensile stress, velocity of Rayleigh wave propagating in coating specimen increases with coating thickness increasing, and the variation rate reduces of difference in time of flight with tensile stress increasing as coating thickness increases.