Abstract: During sonic infrared imaging testing, vibration of the target under sonic pulse excitation directly determines heating of defect area. Engagement force between horn and target is one of primary factors affecting vibration characteristics of the target. The analysis of experimental results shows that the increase of engagement force makes the vibration energy undergo a gradual increase process with two small instability ranges, and the vibration spectrum undergo a development process from chaotic vibration into subharmonic vibration, quasi-subharmonics vibration and superharmonics vibration. Based on these phenomena, a finite element model corresponding to experiment conditions is established and transient dynamic analyses are performed by an explicit finite element method. In the finite element model, a piezoelectric-force analogy method is employed to simulate the inverse piezoelectric effect of piezoelectric ceramic discs, and dynamic relaxation is used to simulate the experiment conditions more vividly. The simulation results further verdict experimental results and reveal that the increase of engagement force changes the status of contact force between ultrasonic horn and test plate, which further changes the vibration energy distribution and vibration spectrum of test plate. The conclusions are helpful for controlling vibration status through engagement force, which will be used to determine the test conditions of sonic infrared imaging.

Key words: engagement force, sonic infrared imaging, vibration energy, vibration spectrum