Dispersion Behaviors of Wedge Waves Propagating along Bilinear Wedges

This study is focused on the propagation of wedge waves (WW) propagating along the apex of a wedge with a bilinear cross section, or a wedge with two apex angles. WW propagating along a truncation free wedge is dispersion‐free, and has an increasing slope in the dispersion curve while the truncation increases. However, this kind of dispersion behavior is only verified for wedges with perfect horizontal truncations. In some applications, such as wedge‐like machine tool blades, the wedge tip has more a complex geometry, typically in a bilinear form. A laser ultrasonic technique is used to investigate the dispersion behaviors of WW propagating in bilinear wedges WW. It is found that two groups of WWs supported by the two apex angles can be simultaneously observed for a bilinear wedge. Coupling behavior between the two groups of WWs is investigated.