112 6 Attenuation of Ultrasonic Waves in Solids

the thickness of the layer concerned. While, for instance, 20 mm grey cast iron can
still be tested with 25 % of the echo height in a good quality steel, and which reduc-
tion can easily be compensated by the gain control, an echo in the same material,
but 100 rnm thick, has dropped to 0.1 %. This is a value which depending on the
transmitter voltage, the design of the probe and the gain may prevent testing. If by
increased gain it is nevertheless possible to increase this back-wall echo from the
100 rnm thickness to the same value obtained from a thickness of 20 mm, the mate-
rial at the distance of20 rnm is subjected to a sound pressure 250 times greater than
previously, resulting in excessively large indications from boundaries and small
flaws in the close range. This is erroneously referred to as increased scattering, al-
though compared with the test at 20 rnm thickness nothing has changed. Where
there is high attenuation in a given test piece, a comparison of flaw echo and back-
wall echo may therefore lead to completely false conclusions.
In view of the fact that at greater layer thicknesses one usually has to work in
the far-field of the probe, additional allowance has to be made for the decrease of
the amplitude due to the divergence of the beam. According to Eq. (4.6) the sound
pressure at distance d from the probe can therefore be written

(6.3)

A numerical example will make it clear that both causes of the decrease follow es-
sentially different distance laws, so that the range will in the one case be deter-
mined more by the divergence of the beam and in the other by the attenuation.
Let the sound pressure at a distance of 100 mm be set arbitrarily at 100 %. The
sound pressure then is in percentage terms:

At a distance of 100mm 1m 10m

Due to the divergence of the beam alone: 100 10 1

Due to the attenuation alone at
oc= 1dB/m 100 90 32
10 dB 1m 100 35 0.001
100dB/m 100 0.003

Since the two contributing factors have to be multiplied by each other, the div-
ergence of the beam determines the range in the case of materials which can readily
be penetrated (fine-grained steel and aluminium at 2 MHz), whereas in the case of
higher attenuation this is the predominating factor.
Generally transverse waves are attenuated more strongly than longitudinal
waves, particularly in plastics. Contrary to the assumption frequently heard in prac-
tice, it is not possible to determine the attenuation coefficient of sound for trans-
verse waves by measuring the attenuation coefficient for longitudinal waves at
double the frequency. The elastic resistance of the material exerted against a
change in position of the particles (as in the case of transverse waves) is quite dif-
ferent from that against a change in volume (as in the case of longitudinal waves).