Bruchem habayim • G’day • Witajcie

Welcome • Bienvenidos • Dobro pozhalov

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing

Merhaba • Byenveni • Uwamkelekile

 Ultrasonic Testing
Level II

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing

Paul Marks, NDT Training Center

 Lesson 9
Ultrasonic Testing Applications
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Introduction
1. This lesson is devoted to the manner by which
ultrasonic techniques are used to ensure test object
compliance with acceptance criteria, as carried out in
several manufacturing and field service
environments.
2. Ultrasonic tests are used for gathering information on
test objects made from an array of materials in many
configurations. This course emphasizes industrial
and engineering applications where ultrasonic testing
is used for materials characterization during
manufacture and service.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Testing Applications
• During fabrication and assembly, ultrasonic testing
is used to ensure that an object meets the quality
criteria specified in original design specifications.
• These criteria often require an absence of various
types of discontinuities, including cracks,
inclusions and voids in specified concentrations or
sizes.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Test Objects with Flat Surfaces

Many objects tested with ultrasonic testing are flat with
parallel surfaces. The most common ultrasonic test
objects include:
• Rolled plate.
• Bar.
• Sheet.
• Flat castings.
• Extrusions.
• Ingots and billets.
• Forgings.
• Engineered materials such as composite and
honeycomb panels.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Detecting Planar Discontinuities

• Planar discontinuities act as smooth, flat reflectors
that reflect a strong, clearly defined echo.
• When the transducer is properly aligned with the
reflected beam, the response is clear and crisp on
the A-scan display.
• If the transducer is not closely aligned with the
reflected beam, the reflected beam can be
completely missed during a typical test.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Detecting Planar Discontinuities

Planar discontinuities often have an orientation

within a test object based on the manner by which
the test object was manufactured or the type of
service stress.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Gating Applications
For a base material with
many discontinuities that
scatter the beam (stringers
and elongated clusters of
inclusions or voids), the
acoustic energy reaching
the back surface becomes
increasingly attenuated.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Special Case of Thin Materials

• Thin, gaged materials, such as sheet and
composites, are usually tested with longitudinal
wave transducer configurations similar to those
used with plates.
• However, higher near-surface resolution and
different interpretations of the A-scan displays are
sometimes necessary.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Special Case of Thin Materials

One approach is to move the transducer away from

the surface of the test object using a spacer such
as an acrylic rod. Pictured here is a single element
longitudinal transducer with acrylic rod stand-off.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Special Case of Thin Materials

• On the A-scan display using a single element
transducer, multiple reflections from a thin-walled
test object can make detection of a discontinuity
difficult.
• A dual element transducer, with one element
serving as a transmitter and the other functioning
as a receiver, provides a representation of the
sound wave/material interaction that is much
easier to interpret.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Special Case of Thin Materials

Some dual element

transducers have the
elements mounted side
by side and slightly
inclined toward each
other.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Special Case of Thin Materials

Here we see the setup and typical A-scan display of
a reflector plate technique that involves sound
traveling through the test material twice. The
transducer is scanned above the test object in a
rectilinear (X-Y) pattern.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Discontinuities Perpendicular
to the Entry Surface
For materials with generally parallel surfaces, such
as plate and pipe, the sound beam can be reflected
from the inspection surface to detect reflections
from locations where flaws are perpendicular to
either the far surface or the surface on which the
transducer is being applied.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Discontinuities Perpendicular
to the Entry Surface

These figures show the same concept used in the

immersion technique for both plate and heavy
walled pipe.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Discontinuities Perpendicular
to the Entry Surface

The double-vee weld shown here has its root near

the mid-thickness region of the weld.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Scattering Discontinuities

In contrast with the preferential directionality of

planar discontinuities, scattering discontinuities
(voluminous and globular) tend to scatter incident
sound beams into many directions.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Scattering Discontinuities
Examples include gas
pores, irregularly
shaped inclusions and
shrinkage found in
castings and welds, as
well as bursts in
forgings and chevron
cracks found in drawn
bar. This class of
reflectors is relatively
easy to detect in fine-
grained metallic
structures.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Test Objects with Curved Surfaces

Ultrasonic testing of objects with simple curved

surfaces (shafts, tubes and pipes, castings and
forgings) is generally done with techniques that
compensate for test object curvature.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Test Objects with Curved Surfaces

For example, a large diameter welded pipe is
tested using the same setups used for flat plate
butt joints. However, as the diameter drops below
50 cm (20 in.), the curvature of the surface causes
the couplant across the face of the contact
transducer to become nonuniform.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Test Objects with Curved Surfaces

The transducer is also subject to rocking during

scanning. In addition, the curvature of the test
object, acting as an acoustic lens, diverges the
sound beam within the pipe. As the size of pipe
decreases, these effects become increasingly
pronounced.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Test Objects with Irregular Surfaces

For irregularly shaped test objects, such as nozzles,
an ultrasonic test is only viable when a specific local
region and a specifically oriented reflector are being
considered.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Test Objects with Irregular Surfaces

When two pipes are joined

at angles other than right
angles, this problem
becomes even more
pronounced.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Compressed Discontinuities

If the surface of an air-filled crack within a steel

plate is smooth and under compressive stress,
part of the sound will pass through the interface
because of the intimate contact and partial
deformation of the crack’s joining surfaces.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Compressed Discontinuities
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Compressed Discontinuities
Another example occurs when
the smooth walls in the root
area of the joint of a double-
vee weld preparation become
abutted during the welding
operation caused by
compressive stresses from
shrinkage within the bulk of
the weld.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Material Characterization
• The acoustic nature of a test object has a
pronounced effect on how ultrasound passes
through it.
• Fine-grained elastic materials found in many
metals are considered homogeneous (same
material throughout) and isotropic (same
characteristics along all axes).
• For this class of materials, a sound beam’s
direction and behavior are highly predictable.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Material Characterization

Products such as castings tend to have large grain

structures and this scatters the energy of a
coherent sound wave. The effect becomes more
pronounced as the average size of the grain
approaches the wavelength of sound in the
material.
Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Limited Access Tests

Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Summary

This lesson addressed the

detection and characterization of
discontinuities in raw materials
and finished components.
 Ultrasonic Testing Applications

Thank You Thank You Thank You

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing

Lesson 9 End Lesson 9 End Lesson 9

End