Laser ultrasonics as an innovative sensor for microstructure control

激光超声冶金技术（LUMet）是一种新兴的加拿大传感器技术，是一种非接触和非破坏性的技术，用于快速和精确地原位测量微观结构--赋予金属或合金独特性能的“指纹”。我们很幸运地通过一个成功的CFI应用程序（约109万美元）获得了世界上第一个LUMet系统，作为我们Gleeble 3500热机械模拟器的附件。这是LUMET首次用于冶金研究实验室，而不是激光开发实验室。激光超声学是使用激光产生和检测超声的技术。目前，标准金相学-金属微观结构的研究-使用缓慢和劳动密集型技术。LUMET通过加速实验室研究和作为工业生产线中微结构控制的智能传感器，提供了改变金属和合金加工性质的潜力，目前微结构通过温度测量间接控制。这种潜在的范式转变将推动具有高度理想特性的微结构设计-这些特性是生产创新材料和产品所需的，将使加拿大处于全球冶金工业的前沿。在拟议的项目中，激光超声将进一步发展，用于监测钢、铝、钛和镁合金中的晶粒生长、再结晶、沉淀和相变。三名研究生将接受专门的激光超声研究培训，从而将他们定位为加拿大冶金行业这种创新传感器技术的冠军。长期目标是（i）在不列颠哥伦比亚省大学建立一个国际激光超声冶金学卓越中心;（ii）促进LUMET技术成为冶金界原位微观结构表征和控制的新标准。

Laser ultrasonics for metallurgy (LUMet) is an emerging Canadian sensor technology that is a noncontact and nondestructive technique for fast and precise in-situ measurements of microstructures - the "fingerprints" that give a metal or alloy its unique properties. We are fortunate to have acquired the world's first LUMet system as an attachment to our Gleeble 3500 thermo-mechanical simulator through a successful CFI application (of approximately 1.09 million dollar). This is the first time that LUMet will be used in a laboratory dedicated to metallurgical studies rather than in a laser development laboratory. Laser ultrasonics is the generation and detection of ultrasound using lasers. Currently, standard metallography - the study of the microscopic structure of metals - uses slow and labour-intensive techniques. LUMet offers the potential to transform the nature of metal and alloy processing by accelerating laboratory studies and as an intelligent sensor for microstructure control in an industrial line where currently microstructure is indirectly controlled by temperature measurements. This potential paradigm shift will drive the design of microstructures with highly desirable properties - those needed to produce the innovative materials and products that will put Canada at the forefront of the metallurgical industry worldwide. In the proposed project laser ultrasonics will be further advanced for monitoring grain growth, recrystallization, precipitation and phase transformations in steels, Al, Ti and Mg alloys. Three graduate students will be trained with dedicated laser ultrasonic studies thereby positioning them as champions of this innovative sensor technology in Canada's metallurgical industry. The long term objectives are (i) to establish an international Centre of Excellence on laser ultrasonics for metallurgy at the University of British Columbia and (ii) to promote the LUMet technology as a new standard for in-situ microstructure characterization and control in the metallurgical community.