CLIAMS:1. A system for non-destructive material property estimation comprising:

- A sound sample recording module;
- A sample metal component or assembly;
- A Fourier transformation unit, wherein the said unit consists natural frequency
extraction information;
- A computer aided design (CAD) module, wherein the said module consists of
a CAD model of the said sample metal component or assembly;
- A Finite element module, wherein the said module consists of a finite element
model of the said CAD model; and
- A comparator module comprising instruction to match stiffness of extracted
natural frequencies from the FFT information from the sample
sound signal with the extracted natural frequency from the modal analysis
information.

2. A method for non-destructive material property estimation comprising:
- Recording a sound sample; wherein the said sound sample is generated from
impacting a sample metal component or assembly;
- Processing the said sound sample to generate Fourier transformation
information;
- Extracting natural frequency information from the said Fourier transformation
information;
- Creating a CAD model of the said sample metal component or assembly
- Creating a Finite element model from the said CAD model; and
- Comparing to match stiffness of extracted natural frequencies from the said
Fourier transformation information from the sample sound signal with the
extracted natural frequency from the modal analysis information;
3. A system for non-destructive material property estimation comprising:
- A comparator module comprising instruction to match stiffness of extracted natural frequencies from the FFT information from the sample sound signal with the extracted natural frequency from the modal analysis information; wherein the said comparator module is suitable to process information related to metal component or assembly under commercial metal based product buy back schemes;
,TagSPECI:FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
[001] The present invention relates in general to low cost non-destructive system and method for estimating material property, particularly determining Young’s Modulus of metallic components.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:
[002] Determination of the mechanical properties of manufactured articles is useful for predicting the performance and applications of new articles and compositions as well as ensuring consistent quality of existing processes and/or articles of manufacture. One such property that can be evaluated is the modulus of elasticity (e.g., Young' modulus, elastic modulus). The modulus of elasticity is a measure of a material's relative stiffness, or more specifically, a measure of the rate of change in stress with respect to strain.

[003] One method of determining the modulus of elasticity (E) for a composition or article is through tensile testing. Tensile testing first comprises securing a sample of known dimensions between an upper moving jaw and a bottom stationary jaw, which are disposed at a known distance there between. Once secured, the upper jaw can advance in a direction away from the bottom jaw, which generates a tensile force on the test article. The resulting stress is plotted with respect to the strain generated, wherein the modulus of elasticity is equal to the slope of the graph. This principle is illustrated in equation (I) below;

Wherein;
E = Modulus of Elasticity
F = Measured Force
A = Area
d = Extension Length
l = Original Length
[004] Although tensile testing can be utilized to calculate the modulus of elasticity for an article, the test is destructive, which can present metal processing agencies and manufacturers with a loss in profit. Furthermore, tensile testing cannot predict changes in the modulus of elasticity across an article; rather, tensile testing is a measurement of the article's gross properties.
[005] Moreover, recycling of materials is fast becoming a need of the hour in the present global manufacturing industry to combat the impending threat of global warming so that the energy, time, efforts and resources spent on metal extraction and manufacturing is optimally used. Also due to continuous advancement in technology and rapidly increasing global customer demands is leading to enormous production of manufactured products. However various factors like shifts in global demand for a particular manufactured product, continuous reduction in product development cycle in turn releasing more new products into the market are making shelf life of most manufactured products extremely shorter. Therefore to optimize the eco-efficiency of our products through the product life-cycle, increased resource and energy efficiency in the production process of common metals like iron and steel and also during the use of various metal and steel products are fast becoming an important imperative for the sustainability of the industrial world. Today the world is becoming more committed to the promotion of the recovery, reuse and recycling of metals, and especially steel. Once steel is produced, its life cycle is potentially endless because it is easy to recover with magnets and 100% recyclable without loss of quality. This makes it a permanent resource for society – as long a sit is recovered at the end of each product life cycle.

[006] Recovered by-products can be recycled during the steelmaking process or sold for use by other industries. Use of by-products supports the sustainability of the steel industry. It prevents land fill waste, reduces CO2 emissions and helps preserve natural resources. The sale of by-products is also economically sustainable. It generates revenues for steel producers and forms the base of a lucrative worldwide industry. Some companies today already report by-products utilization and recycling rate as high as 99%.

[007] So material recycling and metal recycling in particular, will soon become an enormous global business opportunity across manufacturing engineering disciplines like aerospace, automotive, Oil & Gas, Energy, heavy engineering , industrial products etc. The present invention is aimed at opening a new business avenue for the present day low cost material recycling business.

[008] The collection of metal waste for recycling happens in different ways. The collection mechanism is dependent on the where the waste is generated i.e. in households or corporate. Households, depending on which city it is located in, sell their waste to kabaadiwalas who collects the waste door-to-door. This is an assortment of different types of waste including e-waste. Some products are sold in buy-back schemes offered by retail chains. For example, buy-back schemes are not available for products like CD/ DVD players while it is available for products like televisions, mixies, tape recorders, washing machines etc.

[009] This invention aims for low cost material property estimation under high temperature environment and also under room temperature by non-destructive means, eliminating significant human efforts as required presently for similar purposes in the global engineering community to estimate at finding remaining stiffness in the metal component that has seen load cycle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
[010] In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the prior arts, the general purpose of the present invention is to provide an improved combination of convenience and utility, to include the advantages of the prior art, and to overcome the drawbacks inherent therein.

[011] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for material property estimation under high temperature and also at room temperature conditions using low cost and non-destructive means that requires reduced human effort and are easy to use by any engineering community

[012] In one aspect, the present invention provides a system of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer based engineering (CAE) based models of a metal component.

[013] In another aspect, the present invention provides a system comprising a module for recording samples of sound signals emanated from a metal component after being struck by a soft hammer. The system comprises a unit for Fourier transformation of the recorded samples of sound signals and subsequent natural frequency extraction from the Fourier transformations of the recorded sample sound signals

[014] In a further aspect of the present invention, the system further comprises, a finite element modeling unit for the modeling unit, a modal analysis engine to match natural frequencies and a comparator unit for final comparison of finite element model and natural frequencies from the sample sound signal emanated from the metal component after being struck

[015] In yet another aspect, the present invention provides, a system and method for material property estimation under high temperature and also at room temperature conditions using low cost and non-destructive means that requires reduced human effort and are easy to use by any engineering community for effective metal recycling applications

[016] In a further aspect of this invention, a system and method for material property estimation under high temperature and also at room temperature conditions, comprising; low cost and non-destructive means for comparing natural frequencies from at least one sample sound signal emanated from a metal component with at least one Computer Aided Design (CAD) and at least one Computer based engineering (CAE) based model of the said metal component.

[017] In an additional aspect, the present invention provides, a system and method for material property estimation under high temperature and also at room temperature conditions comprising; low cost and non-destructive means for comparing natural frequencies from sample sound signals from a metal components with respect to Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer based engineering (CAE) based models of the said metal component wherein the said metal component is a manufactured part or product sold under a buy back commercial scheme for metal recycling.

[018] These together with other aspects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated exemplary embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:
[019] In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.

[020] As used herein, the term ‘plurality’ refers to the presence of more than one of the referenced item and the terms ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘at least’ do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.

[021] Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computer systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. CAD software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation, and to create a database for manufacturing. CAD output is often in the form of electronic files for print, machining, or other manufacturing operations.

[022] CAD software for mechanical design uses either vector-based graphics to depict the objects of traditional drafting, or may also produce raster graphics showing the overall appearance of designed objects. However, it involves more than just shapes. As in the manual drafting of technical and engineering drawings, the output of CAD must convey information, such as materials, processes, dimensions, and tolerances, according to application-specific conventions.
[023] Computer-aided design is one of the many tools used by engineers and designers and is used in many ways depending on the profession of the user and the type of software in question.
CAD is one part of the whole Digital Product Development (DPD) activity within the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) processes, and as such is used together with other tools, which are either integrated modules or stand-alone products, such as:

• Computer-aided engineering (CAE) and Finite element analysis (FEA)
• Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) including instructions to Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines

[024] Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a computer based method of simulating/analyzing the behavior of engineering structures and components under a variety of conditions. It is an advanced engineering tool that is used in design and to augment/replace experimental testing. In structural design, the number of repetitions of load assumed to act on a structure during its lifetime; used as a criterion in determining the fatigue strength of the structure.

[025] Modal analysis is a process whereby we describe a structure in terms of its natural characteristics which are the frequency, damping and mode shapes – its dynamic properties.

[026] Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is used for doing conversion from the spatial domain to the frequency domain. Each frame having Nm samples are converted into frequency domain. Fourier transformation is a fast algorithm to apply Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), on the given set of Nm samples shown below -

[027] Referring to FIG. 1 that illustrates a system 10comprising a sound recording module 12 for recording samples of sound signals emanated from a metal component sample 16 after being struck by a soft hammer. The system comprises a Fourier Transformation Unit 14 for Fourier transformation of the recorded samples of sound signals and subsequent natural frequency extraction from the Fourier transformations of the recorded sample sound signals. The same metal component sample 16 is also analysed to generate a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model within the CAD module 18. Metal component sample 16 can be modelled using popular commercial engineering simulation software like ANSYS e.t.c. Then the CAD model is transformed into a finite element model in the finite element model 20. The comparator module 22 is now communicatively coupled to both finite element module 20 and Fourier transformation unit 14.

[028] Referring to FIG. 2 that illustrates a flowchart of a method of estimating material property, particularly, but not limited to, determining Young’s Modulus of metallic components. A soft hammer (may be hard rubber) is hit onto a sample metal component under investigation. Sound signals emanating from the sample metal component under investigation is recorded 22 using any simple digital sound recording device like a common digital recorder or a mobile phone device.

[029] The recorded noise is fed to a computer program for generating Fourier transformation model 26from the same metal component using a commercially available engineering simulation software product like ANSYS. A CAD model of the sample metal component or assembly is also generated 24. Once the CAD model is created, a subsequent finite element model of the assembly is also created 28 from the CAD model. A material specific input 30 is also considered in this stage of the present method.

[030] Subsequently modal analysis is performed 32 to extract and match natural frequency. A suitable algorithm compares 34 the natural frequency from sample sound converted to the Finite Element model.

[031] The matching point is where the stiffness (young’s modulus) is matched to arrive at the desired final estimate 36. The same can be done at time intervals so that fall in young’s modulus is also recorded for the .The same method can be implemented in high temperature environment.