Ultrasonic Flaw Detection Tutorial

8.2 DGS/AVG
DGS/AVG
DGS is a sizing technique that relates the amplitude of the echo from a reflector to that of a flat bottom hold at the
same depth or distance. This is known as Equivalent Reflector Size or ERS. DGS is an acronym for
Distance/Gain/Size and is also known as AVG from its German name, Abstand Verstarkung Grosse. Traditionally
this technique involved manually comparing echo amplitudes with printed curves, however contemporary digital
flaw detectors can draw the curves following a calibration routine and automatically calculate the ERS of a gated
peak. The generated curves are derived from the calculated beam spreading pattern of a given transducer,
based on its frequency and element diameter using a single calibration point. Material attenuation and coupling
variation in the calibration block and test specimen can be accounted for. DGS is a primarily mathematical
technique originally based on the ratio of a circular probes calculated beam profile and measurable material
properties to circular disk reflectors. The technique has since been further applied to square element and even
dual element probes, although for the latter, curve sets are empirically derived. It is always up to the user to
determine how the resultant DGS calculations relate to actual flaws in real test pieces.
An example of a typical DGS curve set is seen below. The uppermost curve represents the relative amplitude of
the echo from a flat plate reflector in decibels, plotted at various distances from the transducer, and the curves
below represent the relative amplitude of echoes from progressively smaller disk reflectors over the same
distance scale.
As implemented in contemporary digital
flaw detectors, DGS curves are typically
plotted based on a reference calibration
off a known target such as a backwall
reflector or a flat bottom hole at a given
depth. From that one calibration point, an
entire curve set can be drawn based on
probe and material characteristics. Rather
than plotting the entire curve set,
instruments will typically display one
curve based on a selected reflector size (registration level) that can be adjusted by the user. In the example
below, the upper curve represents the DGS plot for a 2 mm disk reflector at depths from 10 mm to 50 mm. The
lower curve is a reference that has been plotted 6 dB lower. In the screen at left, the red gate marks the reflection
from a 2 mm diameter flat bottom hole at approximately 20 mm depth. Since this reflector equals the selected
registration level, the peak matches the curve at that depth. In the screen at right, a different reflector at a depth
of approximately 26 mm has been gated. Based on its height and depth in relation to the curve the instrument
calculated an ERS of 1.5 mm.