Presentation on

attenuation
by
ndtctc team
 The Acoustic Attenuation is the decay of
mechanical vibration with the increase of distance
to the source, within a medium
 This loss may be caused by absorption, scattering or
other material characteristics.
 Basically the sound attenuation increases with an
increase in the frequency
Attenuation depends on:
1. Beam spread
2. Absorption
3. Scattering
Sound travelling through a
material causes loss of intensity

Loses intensity due to

Beam Spread Attenuation

• Sound beam comparable • Energy losses due to
to a torch beam material
•Reduction differs for small •Made up of absorption
and large reflectors and scatter
 The sound beam
spread out and the
intensity decreases
with respect to
distance from main
beam.
  The bigger the diameter the smaller
the beam spread
 The higher the frequency the smaller
the beam spread
Which has the larger beam spread, a compression
or a shear wave probe?

Longitudinal wave
Edge, 0% intensity
10% intensity
50% intensity
Beam axis
or Main Beam
100% intensity
 The region in which ultrasonic waves are
propagated from an ultrasonic transducer.
 Two regions exist in ultrasonic beam
Sound Beam Zones:
 Near Zone or Fresnel Zone:
Zone near to source, waves travels in irregular
form
 Far Zone or Fraunhofer Zone:
Zone far from source, waves travels in regular
form.
 NZ FZ Main
Beam

Intensity
varies

Exponential Decay

Distance
 The side lobes has
multi minute main
beams
Two identical defects
may give different
amplitudes of signals

Near
Side
Zone
Lobes

The main beam or the

Centre beam has the
Main Lobe highest intensity of sound
energy
Main Any reflector hit by the
Beam main beam will reflect the
high amount of energy
 Zone near to source of sound,
 waves travels in irregular form
 Flaws occurred in this region produces multiple
echo's
D2
Near Zone 
4
V
 
f
D2 f
Near Zone 
4V
 2 2
D D f
Near Zone  
4 4V
 The bigger the diameter the bigger the
near zone
 The higher the frequency the bigger
the near zone
 The lower the velocity the bigger the
near zone
Longitudinal wave probe with
circular transducer:
 The effective transmitting area of a
transducer is 97 % since because of
gluing.

 Near field length = Deff2/4 λ

= 0.94D2/4 λ
= 0.94D2f/4V
Angle probe with rectangular transducer:


What is the near zone length of a 5MHz compression
probe with a crystal diameter of 10mm in steel?

2
D f
Near Zone 
4V
10  5,000,000
2

4  5,920,000
 21.1mm
Which probes has the longest Near Zone ?

1 M Hz 5 M Hz 1 M Hz
25MM 25MM 10MM 5 M Hz
10MM
 Zone far from source.
 Far zone is beyond of near zone.
 waves travels in regular form.
 Intensity
of sound varies with
respected to distance.
 theintensity decreases inversely
with the square of the distance.
 In the far zone sound pulses spread out as they
move away from the crystal. This is called as
beam divergence

/2


 K KV
Sine  or
2 D Df
  K KV
Sine  or
2 D Df
Edge,K=1.22
20dB,K=1.08
6dB,K=0.56
Beam axis
or Main Beam
K values for circular and rectangular transducers
as determined by pulse echo method:
% dB K circular K Rectangular
0 dB 1.22 1.00
10 dB 0.87 0.74
50 dB 0.51 0.44

K values for circular and rectangular transducers as determined

by through transmission method:
% dB K circular K Rectangular
0 dB 1.22 1.00
10 dB 1.08 0.60
50 dB 0.54 0.91
 The bigger the diameter the smaller the
beam divergent angle
 The higher the frequency the smaller the
beam divergent angle
 Higher the velocity higher the beam
divergent angle

Which has the larger beam divergent angle, a

compression or a shear wave probe?

Longitudinal wave
 What is the beam spread of a 10mm,5MHz
compression wave probe in steel?

 KV
Sine 
2 Df
1.08  5920

5000 10
 0.1278  7.35 o
Which probe has the Largest Beam Spread ?

1 M Hz 5 M Hz
1 M Hz
25 mm 25 mm 10 mm 5 M Hz
10 mm
Near Zone Far Zone
 Thickness  Thickness
measurement measurement
 Detection of defects
 Defect detection
 Sizing of large defects
only  Sizing of all defects

Near zone length as small as possible

 Scattering (i.e. dispersion): reflection of the
sound in directions other than its original
direction of propagation.
 The higher the frequency the higher the
sensitivity to features that generate scatter
  The bigger the
grain size the worse
the problem
 The higher the
frequency of the
probe the worse
the problem

1 MHz 5 MHz
 Absorption is conversion of the sound
energy to other forms of energy, e.g. heat.
The higher the frequency the higher the
energy dissipated
 A= amplitude at end of path
A = A0 X e -αd A0 = Initial amplitude
(OR) α = Attenuation co-efficient
d = sound path length
P = P0 X e-αd P= pressure at end of path
P 0 = Initial pressure
 Attenuation values for
common materials:
MATERIAL ATTENUATION PRINCIPAL
(dB/m) CAUSE
NORMALIZED STEEL 70 SCATTER

ALUMINIUM 90 SCATTER

STAINLESS STEEL 110 SCATTER/REDIRECTIO

N
PLASTIC 380 ABSORPTION
 The Acoustic Attenuation is characteristic of the
material, but also depends on:

 Frequency of the ultrasounds (attenuation is generally

proportional to the square of the sound frequency)
 Type of ultrasonic wave
 Temperature of the materials
 Roughness of surface
 Diffusion
 Geometry
 Viscous damping losses
Attenuation coefficient denoted by α.
α = dB/d
α = dB/2t
Here,
Db= decibels
t = thickness of plate
d= sound path length
Units for attenuation coefficient is decibels per meter or decibels
per mm
 Decibel is logarithmic comparison of two signals.
 It is used to measure sound intensity.

dB= 20 log10 (H1/H2)

or
H1/H2 = 10Db/20
2 signals at 20% and 40% FSH, What is
the difference between them in dB’s?

H0
dB  20Log..10
H1
40
dB  20 Log..10  20 Log..102
20
dB  20 0.3010
dB  6dB
2 signals at 10% and 100% FSH. What is the
difference between them in dB’s?
H0
dB  20Log..10
H1
100
dB  20 Log..10  20 Log..1010
10
dB  201
dB  20dB
A 2MHz sound waves travels through 20 mm steel
block, it generates first and second back wall
echoes at 80%FSH and 20%FSH. Find out
attenuation coefficient?
 Answer:
Amplitude of 1st signal H1= 80% FSH
Amplitude of 2nd signal H2= 20% FSH
Thickness of block T =20mm
Decibels of attenuation dB=?
Attenuation coefficient (α) =?
Formula:
Decibels of attenuation dB= 20 log10 (H1/H2)
= 20 log10 (80/20)
= 20 log10 (4)
= 12 dB
Attenuation coefficient (α) = dB/2T
=12/ (2X20)
= 0.3 dB/mm
Amplitude ratios in decibels

 2:1 = 6bB
 4:1 = 12dB
 5:1 = 14dB
 10 : 1 = 20dB
 100 : 1 = 40dB
 80% Attenuation and beam
FSH spread. 6dB+ reduction
80%
40%
FSH
FSH
36%
FSH

No attenuation, only
beam spread. 6dB
reduction