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Ultrasonic Testing
What is Ultrasonic Testing?
Ultrasonic nondestructive testing, also known as ultrasonic NDT or simply UT, is a
method of characterizing the thickness or internal structure of a test piece through the
use of high frequency sound waves. The frequencies, or pitch, used for ultrasonic
testing are many times higher than the limit of human hearing, most commonly in the
range from 500 KHz to 20 MHz.
There are two methods of receiving the ultrasound waveform, reflection and attenuation.
In reflection (or pulse-echo) mode, the transducer performs both the sending and the
receiving of the pulsed waves as the "sound" is reflected back to the device. Reflected
ultrasound comes from an interface, such as the back wall of the object or from an
imperfection within the object. The diagnostic machine displays these results in the form
of a signal with an amplitude representing the intensity of the reflection and the
distance, representing the arrival time of the reflection.
At a construction site, a technician tests a pipeline weld for defects using an ultrasonic phased array
instrument. The scanner, which consists of a frame with magnetic wheels, holds the probe in contact
with the pipe by a spring. The wet area is the ultrasonic couplant that allows the sound to pass into
the pipe wall.
BEA
Backwall Echo Attenuation
BEA – Backwall Echo Attenuation is a flaw detection technique applied in ultrasonics to identify or confirm the
presence of defects by observing a reduction in the amplitude of the echo reflected from the backwall. A typical
example is in the inspection of forgings using a 0° probe. The amplitude of the echo from the backwall will
remain approximately constant in clean material. The presence of defects between the probe and the backwall
reduce the amount of sound reaching the backwall and, consequently, reduce the size of the backwall echo.
Planar laminar defects are likely to produce direct pulse-echo responses, which can be detected as signals
observed in the range between the probe and the backwall echo. The BEA provides confirmation of the
presence of such defects. Clusters of small defects, such as porosity, may not produce a reflected signal of
sufficiently high amplitude to be detected by direct pulse-echo. However, depending on the number and
density, they may scatter the sound sufficiently to be detected by BEA.
BEA is offered as a function on some flaw detectors. For an inspection of a forging, the flaw detector gain,
required to detect the signals from potential defects, will be sufficiently high such that the backwall signal will be
significantly greater than full-screen height. The BEA function allows a separate lower gain to be applied to a
gate towards the end of the timebase, so that the backwall echo can be fully observed on the screen during the
inspection and any changes in amplitude can be monitored.