Abstract
In the fields of materials science and engineering, there are growing demands for monitoring temperature and its distribution of heated materials and structures. This is basically because temperature is one of the most important factors that dominate the material properties and behavior. Such temperature monitoring is often required for not only the inside of heated materials but also the interface between different media. Recently, a new ultrasonic method, so-called ultrasonic thermometry, providing such temperature monitoring has been developed. The method basically consists of ultrasonic pulse-echo measurements and an inverse analysis for determining one dimensional temperature distributions. In this presentation, recent progresses in the ultrasonic thermometry and its application to temperature measurements of heated materials are presented. In particular, temperature measurements at an interface between two materials are highlighted. Some topics on in-situ measurements of temperature at a friction surface and heat flux though a solid interface are also reported. It is expected that the ultrasonic thermometry could be a useful means for in-situ or on-line monitoring of transient temperature variations of materials processed at high temperatures.
