Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its Application to Non-destructive Inspection

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Methods and Instrumentation
Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its
Application to Non-destructive Inspection
J. Takatsubo, M. Imade and S. Yamamoto
Chugoku National Industrial Research Institute
2-2-2 Hiro-suehiro, Kure, Hiroshima, 737-0197, JAPAN
E-mail takatsub@cniri.go.jp

Contact
ABSTRACT
We have examined a laser ultrasonic technique for the visualization of ultrasonic waves propagating on a
solid surface. Scanning an optical heterodyne probe to measure surface transient displacements, ultrasonic
waves in the frequency range up to 50MHz are detected and passed to a personal computer through a
digital oscilloscope. The recorded signals are reconstructed to make three dimensional displacement
images at any propagation time. By use of this imaging system, we observed the scattering and diffraction
of ultrasonic waves around various shapes of artificial defects, and examined the application to
nondestructive inspection.
I NTRODUCTI ON
Techniques for visualizing wave propagation can be very useful with regard to both the educational and
research aspect of studying various wave propagation phenomena[1]. The photoelastic technique and the
Schlieren technique have been used for the visualization of ultrasonic waves[2]. However, these techniques
are applicable only to transparent media. More recently, using an optical heterodyne interferometer, we
have developed a digital ultrasonic imaging system for visualizing and analyzing ultrasonic waves
propagating on opaque solid media. This visualization method can produce a series of successive images as
an animation of wave propagation. Using this method, we observed the propagation of ultrasonic waves
around various shapes of artificial defects such as fatigue cracks, notches and penetration holes. We also
examined the scattering and diffraction for these defects and have been confident that this technique is
available for nondestructive inspection and materials characterization.
2. VI SUALI ZATI ON SYSTEM OF ULTRASONI C WAVE PROPAGATI ON
A new developed ultrasonic imaging system is shown in Fig. 1. An ultrasonic probe is mounted on a
specimen for emitting repeated ultrasonic pulses. The ultrasonic displacements on the surface of the
specimen are detected by scanning a laser optical probe (optical heterodyne interferometer) with a
minimum pitch of 1m. The detected displacements are stored in a computer hard disk. After the
measurement, the stored data are reconstructed as animation images of ultrasonic wave propagations. By
use of this imaging system, we can measure nano-meter order displacements in the frequency range up to
50MHz.
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Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its Application to Non-destructive Inspection

Fig 1: Measuring system for visualization of
ultrasonic waves

Fig 2: Dimension of the specimen having a
cylindrical hole
3. VI SUALI ZATI ON OF ULTRASONI C WAVES
In our visualization system, ultrasonic waves at all scanning points are stored as digital data, so that we can
offer a variety of visualization images[3] as give below. The measurements for these images were
conducted using an aluminum plate having a cylindrical penetration, as shown in Fig.2.
PROPAGATION IMAGE
This image shows the displacement map of the ultrasonic waves at any propagation times. Figure 3 shows
the propagation images around a cylindrical hole at a propagation time interval of 1s, from which we can
easily understand the scattering and diffraction of the ultrasonic wave propagating around a cylindrical
defect. We can offer the animation images on a computer display as well.

Fig 3: Propagation Image of the
ultrasonic wavepropagating
around a cylindrical

Fig 4: Amplitude Image of the ultrasonic wave
propagating around a cylindrical penetration
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Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its Application to Non-destructive Inspection
penetration.
AMPLITUDE IMAGE
Amplitude image shows the maximum amplitude map of the gated wave, which corresponds to C scan
image in ultrasonic inspection. Figure 4 shows the amplitude image around a cylindrical hole. From this
figure, we can observe the intensity distribution of the diffracted waves behind the hole.
ARRIVAL TIME IMAGE
Arrival time image shows the arrival time map of the wave front. Figure 5 shows the arrival time images
around cylindrical holes with different diameters.

Fig 5: Arrival time images of the ultrasonic waves
propagating around cylindrical holes with different
diameters

Fig 6: Trajectory image of the ultrasonic
wave propagating around a cylindrical
penetration
TRAJECTORY IMAGE
Trajectory image shows the overlapped propagation images measured at a given time interval. Figure 6
shows the trajectory image around a cylindrical hole measured at a time interval of 0.8s.
VELOCITY IMAGE
Velocity image corresponds to B scan image in ultrasonic inspection. For example, the waveforms on the
line A in Fig.7 are shown in the left figure. When these waveforms are drawn as B scan image, we can
obtain the velocity image around a cylindrical hole as shown in Fig.8. The gradients of the inclined lines in
Fig.8 represent the sound velocities. The sharp slope means the low velocity. Thus, we can easily estimate
the sound velocity.
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Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its Application to Non-destructive Inspection

Fig 7: Ultrasonic waves measured at line
A on the surface of the aluminum plate
with a cylindrical hole

Fig 8: Velocity image of the ultrasonic wave
propagating around a cylindrical penetration
4. APPLI CATI ON TO NONDESTRUCTI VE I NSPECTI ON AND MATERI ALS
CHARACTERI ZATI ON
In this section, we introduce a few applications of the visualization technique for inspecting and
characterizing materials. Figure 9 shows the propagation images of the ultrasonic waves propagating
around both slit and fatigue crack. The depths of these defects are about 10mm, and the width of the slit is
0.3mm. An angle beam transducer was used for emitting ultrasonic waves as shown in the top figure in
Fig.9. The nominal frequency of the transducer was 5MHz. The wave propagations around these defects
are different with each other. In the case of slit, the ultrasonic wave cannot transmit the slit but creep
around the slit. From this image, we found that three types of waves were propagating around the slit as
shown in the top figure in Fig.10. As shown in Fig.10, the third wave that creeps around slit surface has a
linear relationship between its propagation delay time and slit depth. Hence, we can estimate slit depth by
measuring the delay time of the third wave. On the other hand, in the case of the fatigue crack, we could
not observe the wave creeping around the crack but the wave transmitting across the crack. As can be seen
in Fig.9, the transmition of the ultrasonic wave through fatigue crack causes a slight propagation delay.
The relationship between the propagation delay and the crack depth is shown in Fig.11. By use of this
linear relationship, we can easily make an approximate estimation of fatigue crack depth.
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Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its Application to Non-destructive Inspection

Fig 9: Propagation images of the ultrasonic waves propagating
around both slit and fatigue crack

Fig 10: Relationship between slit depth and
propagation times of the three types of
ultrasonic waves

Fig 11: Relationship between fatigue crack depths and
the ultrasonic delay times caused by transmitting the
cracks
The next example is porosity estimation of Functionally Graded Material (FGM). The specimens used in
this measurement were sintered from laminated powders of zirconia (ZrO
2
) and stainless steel (SUS410)
by spark plasma sintering method. The dimension of the specimen is shown in the top figure in Fig.12. The
nominal frequency of the transducer was 10MHz. The propagation image of the FGM is shown in Fig.12.
As can be seen in Fig.12, the sound velocities at the middle depth of the specimen are slow compared with
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Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its Application to Non-destructive Inspection
the upper and lower sides. We found that this velocity reduction was caused by the existence of micro
pores. Actually, a great number of pores were observed at the middle of the FGM. As has been already
reported[4,5] the relationship between porosity,, and ultrasonic velocity, V, is expressed as

where,
zr
and
sus
are volume fractions of both ZrO
2
and SUS410, respectively. Vrepresents the surface
velocity. is reduction ratio of creeping wave speed[4].is pore shape factor[4]. Hence, we can estimate the
porosities from equation (1), using the values of V
zr
= 3220m/s, V
sus
= 3050m/s, =0.8 and =2. The
estimated values were shown in Fig.13 compared with the measured values, which means we can estimate
porosity distribution in FGM by use of the ultrasonic visualization method.

Fig 12: Propagation images of the ultrasonic waves
propagating on ZrO2/SUS410 functionally graded
material

Fig 13: Comparison between estimated and measured
porosities of ZrO2/SUS410 functionally graded material
5. CONCLUSI ONS
The results obtained from this work are summarized as follows:
1. Noncontact ultrasonic imaging system was developed for the visualization of ultrasonic waves
propagating on opaque media.
2. This imaging system provides propagation image, amplitude image, arrival time image, trajectory
image and velocity image.
3. By use of this visualization method can produce a series of successive images as an animation of
wave propagation.
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Visualization of Ultrasonic Waves and its Application to Non-destructive Inspection
4. This technique is applicable to nondestructive inspection and materials characterization.
REFERENCES
1. Rose J. L., Ultrasonic waves in solid media, Cambridge university press, 1999, p.396
2. Thurston R. N. and Pierce A. D., Ultrasonic measurement method, Academic press, Inc., 1990, p.292
3. Takatsubo J., Imade M., Fan Q. and Yamamoto S., Visualization of elastic waves by digital laser
ultrasonics (in Japanese), Vol.65 No.639, 1999, pp4299-4304.
4. J. Takatsubo and S. Yamamoto, Propagation mechanism of ultrasonic waves in porous ceramics, JSME Int.
J., Vol.39, No.2, 1996, 266-71.
5. Q. Fan, J. Takatsubo and S. Yamamoto, Quantitative characterization of advanced porous ceramics based
on a probabilistic theory of ultrasonic wave propagation, J. Appl. Phys., Vol.86, No.7, 1999, 4023-28.
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