Apparatus and method for performing an impact excitation technique

1. An apparatus for analyzing a mechanical vibratory response of a solid material sample, the apparatus comprising:

supports configured to support said solid material sample at nodes of a vibration mode to be excited;

an array of impactors arranged on a line to impart an impact on respective well-defined points on the surface of said solid material sample and means to cause a relative movement of said solid material sample and said array of impactors in a direction substantially perpendicular to said line, or an array of impactors arranged in a grid;

a sensor configured to capture said mechanical vibratory response as a time-varying signal, subsequent to each impact of said array of impactors; and

processing means configured to analyze said time-varying signal to determine the frequencies and decay constants of sinusoids making up said time-varying signal;

wherein the apparatus is configured to activate all or selected ones of said impactors consecutively along the line prior to moving the line relatively to the sample or consecutively along the grid.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing means is further configured to detect a material defect in said solid material sample on the basis of said determined frequencies and decay constants.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further configured to cause a relative movement of said solid material sample and said array of impactors along two axes.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising one or more of a temperature sensor, means to determine geometric properties of the solid material sample, and a scale.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor is equipped with means to illuminate a spot where the mechanical vibratory response is captured.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor is a contact-based sensor equipped with means to measure a force applied by the sensor on said solid material sample.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said processing means is configured to solve a harmonic inversion problem by applying a general filter-diagonalization method.

8. A method of characterizing a solid material sample, the method comprising:

placing said solid material sample on supports coinciding with nodes of the vibration mode to be excited;

imparting an impact on a plurality of well-defined points on the surface of said solid material sample, by using an array of impactors arranged on a line and moving said solid material sample relative to said array of impactors in a direction substantially perpendicular to said line, or by using an array of impactors arranged on a grid;

capturing a mechanical vibratory response as a time-varying signal, subsequent to said imparting of each such imparted impact; and

analyzing said time-varying signal to determine the frequencies and decay constants of sinusoids making up said time-varying signal;

wherein all or selected ones of said impactors are consecutively activated along the line prior to moving the line relatively to the sample or activated consecutively along the grid.

9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising detecting a material defect in said solid material sample on the basis of said determined frequencies and decay constants.

10. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising moving said solid material sample relative to said array of impactors along two axes.

11. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising estimating a location of a defect on the basis of said frequencies and decay constants obtained for different impact positions.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said analyzing further comprises determining a dynamic Young's modulus (E) from said frequencies.

13. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said analyzing further comprises determining a shear modulus (G) from said frequencies.

14. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said analyzing further comprises comparing said decay constants to reference values.

15. A method of controlling a quality of an article of manufacture, the method comprising:

wherein at least a part of said article of manufacture as said solid material sample using the method according to claim 14 ;

signaling a “pass” condition if said decay constants are within a predetermined margin of said reference values; and

declaring a “fail” condition if said decay constants are outside said predetermined margin of said reference values.

16. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said analyzing comprises solving a harmonic inversion problem by applying a general filter-diagonalization method.

17. A computer program product comprising code means configured to cause a processor to carry out the computation steps of the method according to claim 8 .

18. The computer program product according to claim 17 , wherein said code means comprises the Harminv program.