ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I will say thanks to all who made my stay here in Atlanta possible and supported me in this great time during my study at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. First, I would like to thank my adviser Prof. Laurence J. Jacobs for his guidance and the good working atmosphere in the office. He also supported me financially so I could present my result of my research on the Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation (QNDE) conference in Denver, Colorado. Next I also want to thank Dr. Jin–Yeon Kim for his very helpful advise when I became stuck in my experiments. The valuable discussions with him helped me considerably to find the right direction. Many thanks to Kritsakorn Luangvilai for the help, when I had difficulties with the experimental measurements. I thank Prof. Jianmin Qu for his support and the granting of access to the facilities of the School of Mechanical Engineering. For friendship and a good working environment, I express my gratitude to my office co-workers Sebastian Küch-ler and Richard Kmack. Additionally, I acknowledge the support of the people and organizations of my home country Germany, including the Institute of Applied and Experimental Mechanics with Prof. Dr.–Ing. Lothar Gaul as head of the ISAP Exchange Program. Also thanks to Dipl.–Ing. Helge Kuttig, who did a great deal of organizational work for u