Elastic constants of layers in isotropic laminates

The individual laminae elastic constants in multilayer laminates composed of dissimilar isotropic layers were determined using ultrasonic-resonance spectroscopy and the linear theory of elasticity. Ultrasonic resonance allows one to measure the free-vibration response spectrum of a traction-free solid under periodic vibration. These frequencies depend on pointwise density, laminate dimensions, layer thickness, and layer elastic constants. Given a material with known mass but unknown constitution, this method allows one to extract the elastic constants and density of the constituent layers. This is accomplished by measuring the frequencies and then minimizing the differences between these and those calculated using the theory of elasticity for layered media to select the constants that best replicate the frequency-response spectrum. This approach is applied to a three-layer, unsymmetric laminate of WpCu, and very good agreement is found with the elastic constants of the two constituent materials.