Ultrasonic methods in determining elastic material properties of fibres in suspension

The presented study concerns the application of the pulse-echo ultrasound measurement technique in determining the elastic properties of fibres suspended in water. The two kinds of fibre materials are investigated, nylon 6/6 fibres and softwood pulp fibres. The fibre mass fraction was 0.5% for nylon and ranges from 0% up to 1% for softwood pulp. The ultrasonic measurements are performed in the frequency range of 2-11 MHz. It is shown that the velocity dispersion of the ultrasound is small for each suspension sample. In obtaining the fibres longitudinal Young's modulus two methods are used, one based on phase velocity and one based on acoustic attenuation. It is found that both methods gives reasonable estimates of the longitudinal Young's modulus for nylon 6/6. For pulp fibres the determined Young's modulus is overestimated in comparison with earlier findings.