History of Ultrasonics

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Introduction to
Ultrasonic Testing
History of Ultrasonics
Introduction
Basic Principles
Prior to World War II, sonar, the technique of sending sound waves through water and observing the History
returning echoes to characterize submerged objects, inspired early ultrasound investigators to explore Present State
ways to apply the concept to medical diagnosis. In 1929 and 1935, Sokolov studied the use of Future Direction
ultrasonic waves in detecting metal objects. Mulhauser, in 1931, obtained a patent for using
ultrasonic waves, using two transducers to detect flaws in solids. Firestone (1940) and Simons (1945) Physics of Ultrasound
Wave Propagation
developed pulsed ultrasonic testing using a pulse-echo technique.
Modes of Sound Waves
Properties of Plane Waves
Shortly after the close of World War II, researchers in Japan began to explore the medical diagnostic Wavelength/Flaw Detection
capabilities of ultrasound. The first ultrasonic instruments used an A-mode presentation with blips on Elastic Properties of Solids
an oscilloscope screen. That was followed by a B-mode presentation with a two dimensional, gray Attenuation
scale image. Acoustic Impedance
Reflection/Transmission
Refraction & Snell's Law
Japan's work in ultrasound was relatively unknown in the United States and Europe until the 1950s. Mode Conversion
Researchers then presented their findings on the use of ultrasound to detect gallstones, breast masses, Signal-to-noise Ratio
and tumors to the international medical community. Japan was also the first country to apply Doppler Wave Interference
ultrasound, an application of ultrasound that detects internal moving objects such as blood coursing
through the heart for cardiovascular investigation. Equipment &
Transducers
Piezoelectric Transducers
Ultrasound pioneers working in the United States
Characteristics of PT
contributed many innovations and important Radiated Fields
discoveries to the field during the following decades. Transducer Beam Spread
Researchers learned to use ultrasound to detect Transducer Types
potential cancer and to visualize tumors in living Transducer Testing I
subjects and in excised tissue. Real-time imaging, Transducer Testing II
another significant diagnostic tool for physicians, Transducer Modeling
Couplant
presented ultrasound images directly on the system's
EMATs
CRT screen at the time of scanning. The introduction
Pulser-Receivers
of spectral Doppler and later color Doppler depicted Tone Burst Generators
blood flow in various colors to indicate the speed and Function Generators
direction of the flow.. Impedance Matching
Data Presentation
Error Analysis
The United States also produced the earliest hand held "contact" scanner for clinical use, the second
generation of B-mode equipment, and the prototype for the first articulated-arm hand held scanner,
with 2-D images. Measurement
Techniques
Normal Beam Inspection
Beginnings of Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Angle Beams I
Angle Beams II
Crack Tip Diffraction
Nondestructive testing has been practiced for many decades, with initial rapid developments in
Automated Scanning
instrumentation spurred by the technological advances that occurred during World War II and the Velocity Measurements
subsequent defense effort. During the earlier days, the primary purpose was the detection of defects. Measuring Attenuation
As a part of "safe life" design, it was intended that a structure should not develop macroscopic defects

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 History of Ultrasonics

during its life, with the detection of such defects being a cause for removal of the component from Spread Spectrum
service. In response to this need, increasingly sophisticated techniques using ultrasonics, eddy Signal Processing
Flaw Reconstruction
currents, x-rays, dye penetrants, magnetic particles, and other forms of interrogating energy emerged.

Calibration Methods
In the early 1970's, two events occurred which caused a major change in the NDT field. First, Calibration Methods
improvements in the technology led to the ability to detect small flaws, which caused more parts to DAC Curves
be rejected even though the probability of component failure had not changed. However, the Curvature Correction
discipline of fracture mechanics emerged, which enabled one to predict whether a crack of a given Thompson-Gray Model
size will fail under a particular load when a material's fracture toughness properties are known. Other UTSIM
laws were developed to predict the growth rate of cracks under cyclic loading (fatigue). With the Grain Noise Modeling
References/Standards
advent of these tools, it became possible to accept structures containing defects if the sizes of those
defects were known. This formed the basis for the new philosophy of "damage tolerant" design.
Selected Applications
Components having known defects could continue in service as long as it could be established that
Rail Inspection
those defects would not grow to a critical, failure producing size. Weldments

A new challenge was thus presented to the nondestructive testing community. Detection was not Reference Material
enough. One needed to also obtain quantitative information about flaw size to serve as an input to UT Material Properties
fracture mechanics based predictions of remaining life. The need for quantitative information was References
particularly strongly in the defense and nuclear power industries and led to the emergence of
quantitative nondestructive evaluation (QNDE) as a new engineering/research discipline. A number Quizzes
of research programs around the world were started, such as the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation
at Iowa State University (growing out of a major research effort at the Rockwell International Science
Center); the Electric Power Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Fraunhofer Institute
for Nondestructive Testing in Saarbrucken, Germany; and the Nondestructive Testing Centre in
Harwell, England.

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