<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In this paper a measurement procedure to identify viscoelastic material parameters of plate-like samples using broadband ultrasonic waves is presented. Ultrasonic Lamb waves are excited via the thermoelastic effect using laser radiation and detected by a piezoelectric transducer. The resulting measurement data is transformed to yield information about multiple propagating Lamb waves as well as their attenuation. These results are compared to simulation results in an inverse procedure to identify the parameters of an elastic and a viscoelastic material model.</jats:p>

An approach for the non-destructive characterisation of adhesive bonds using guided ultrasonic waves is presented. Pulsed laser radiation is used to thermoacoustically excite broadband ultrasonic waves in a multi-layered sample, consisting of a metal plate adhesively joined to a polymeric layer using synthetic resin. The resulting signals are received by a purpose-built piezoelectric transducer. Varying the distance between excitation and detection yields spatio-temporal measurement data, from which the dispersive properties of the propagating waves can be inferred using a two-dimensional Fourier transform, assuming the plates to act as coupled waveguides. Coupled multi-layered waveguides show an effect referred to as <jats:italic>mode repulsion</jats:italic>, where the distance between certain modes in the frequency-wavenumber domain is assumed to be a measure of coupling strength. Measurements at different stages of curing of the adhesive layer are performed and evaluated. A comparison of the results shows changes in the dispersive properties, namely an increased modal bandwidth for the fully cured sample as well as an increased modal distance.