Preface to the Fourth Edition

This fourth English edition is based on the fifth German one, published in 1986.
Compared with the third English edition it contains a basically new treatment of
many sections, because in the meantime fundamental research, as well as practical
applications, have made much progress.
To avoid undue growth in the size of the book, some sections have had to be
omitted or shortened, we hope without losing too much of an overall view of this
quickly growing field of non-destructive testing (NOT).
In Part A the sections on basic physics give more emphasis to guided waves,
mode changing processes and the diffraction of waves. The useful creeping or head-
waves have been introduced as well as a fuller treatment of scattered or edge waves.
In the chapter on generation and reception of ultrasonic waves by methods other
than piezo-electricity, the various laser techniques have been treated more thor-
oughly.
In Part B which covers techniques and instrumentation, the rapid progress of
microelectronics is the main reason for an enlargement, and further improvements
in transducer design and their arrangement as phased arrays has also been reported.
Much more space was required in Chapter 13 which covers real-time imaging meth-
ods. Though not yet used on a large scale in practice, they hold much promise for
the future, especially in the case of computer-assisted holographic methods.
In Part C the evaluation of defect size and characteristics needed more space for
reporting on new methods using diffracted waves.
In Part 0, in addition to nuclear reactor testing, the Chapters on heavy forgings,
railway components and materials, and the problems associated with austenitic
welds, composite materials and concrete have all been revised substantially.
Hardness testing using ultrasound has been added and the chapter on standardiza-
tion updated. In Section 33.3 evaluation of materials and their characterization by
attenuation and scattering has been given more space.
A difficult problem has been the bibliography. Today there are probably more
than 50000 published papers on ultrasonic NDT and it has been a difficult task of
selection to restrict the total to about 1900. The papers of the last three years could
be evaluated only very briefly, but the bibliography from the 5th German edition
has been enlarged by adding a Supplement containing a further 206 entries ident-
ified by an S prefix. We ask authors for their understanding if they do not find their
particular papers included, and their pardon if we have overlooked an important pu-
blication.
As well as the co-authors mentioned above (mostly of the Krautkriimer Com-
pany, Cologne), a number of experts have also collaborated, to whom the authors
are very much indebted. These include Or. K. Egelkraut, Bundesbahn-Versuchsamt