{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,13]],"date-time":"2026-05-13T10:52:21Z","timestamp":1778669541861,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,12,23]],"date-time":"2015-12-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1450828800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In the study presented in this article we investigated the feasibility and the reliability of a transducer design for the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of the stiffness of structural materials. The NDE method is based on the propagation of highly nonlinear solitary waves (HNSWs) along a one-dimensional chain of spherical particles that is in contact with the material to be assessed. The chain is part of a built-in system designed and assembled to excite and detect HNSWs, and to exploit the dynamic interaction between the particles and the material to be inspected. This interaction influences the time-of-flight and the amplitude of the solitary pulses reflected at the transducer\/material interface. The results of this study show that certain features of the waves are dependent on the modulus of elasticity of the material and that the built-in system is reliable. In the future the proposed NDE method may provide a cost-effective tool for the rapid assessment of materials\u2019 modulus.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s16010005","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,12,23]],"date-time":"2015-12-23T07:10:20Z","timestamp":1450854620000},"page":"5","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":23,"title":["On the Reliability of a Solitary Wave Based Transducer to Determine the Characteristics of Some Materials"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Wen","family":"Deng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi\u2019an 710072, China"},{"name":"Laboratory for Nondestructive Evaluation and Structural Health Monitoring Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O\u2019Hara Street, 729 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8826-661X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amir","family":"Nasrollahi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Nondestructive Evaluation and Structural Health Monitoring Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O\u2019Hara Street, 729 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Piervincenzo","family":"Rizzo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Nondestructive Evaluation and Structural Health Monitoring Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O\u2019Hara Street, 729 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kaiyuan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Nondestructive Evaluation and Structural Health Monitoring Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O\u2019Hara Street, 729 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,12,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"733","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00905892","article-title":"Propagation of nonlinear compression pulses in granular media","volume":"24","author":"Nesterenko","year":"1983","journal-title":"J. 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