Ultrasonic detection of porous medium characteristics
AssigneeMillipore Corporation
InventorsMichael L. Peterson, Jr., Anthony DiLeo, Zong Mu Wang, Alan Greenberg
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Abstract
Plate waves are used to determine the presence of defects within a porous medium, such as a membrane. An acoustic wave can be propagated through a porous medium to create a plate wave within the medium. The plate wave creates fast compression waves and slow compression waves within the medium that relate to the material and structural properties of the medium. The fast compression wave provides information about the total porosity of a medium. While the slow compression wave provides information about the presence of defects in the medium or the types of materials that form the medium.
Claims29
A method for determining a porous film characteristic comprising the steps of:
- a) acoustically coupling at least one transducer to a porous film;
- b) producing a plate wave in the porous film by propagating an acoustic wave within the porous film;
- c) obtaining a representative signal for the porous film, distinguishing a fast compression wave and a slow compression wave in the porous film;
- d) determining the porous film characteristic from the representative signal.
A method for determining a material characteristic of a porous film comprising the steps of:
- a) acoustically coupling at least one transducer to a porous film;
- b) producing a plate wave in the porous film by propagating a sound wave within the porous film;
- c) distinguishing a slow compression wave in the porous film;
- and
- d) analyzing the slow compression wave to determine the material characteristic of the porous film.
A method for determining the total porosity in a porous film comprising the steps of:
- a) acoustically coupling at least one transducer to a porous film;
- b) producing a plate wave in the porous film by propagating a sound wave within the porous film;
- c) distinguishing a fast compression wave in the porous film;
- and
- d) analyzing the fast compression wave to determine the total porosity of the porous film.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.