Submitted September 2004

Angle Beam Shear Wave Nondestructive Testing

by Young-Fo Chang* and Tzong-Ying Wu

ABSTRACT
Angle beam immersion and contact techniques are commonly used ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques. Since the incident angle of the longitudinal wave is not normal, the mode conversion of the waves will occur at the interface. Due to diffraction, wave interference and the complexity of mode conversions, the accuracy of transmitted shear wave NDT is not always better than transmitted longitudinal wave NDT. In this study, we try to determine the optimum wave type of the transmitted wave and optimum incident angle of the longitudinal wave, so that we can use appropriate transducers and wedges, whose characteristics can be obtained from the manufacturer to perform the angle beam ultrasonic NDT efficiently and effectively. The cumulative transmission energies of longitudinal and shear waves were calculated and some angle beam ultrasonic NDT experiments were performed. Our results indicate that the transmitted longitudinal wave is recommended for scanning cracks in a lightweight alloy of aluminum (over 90%), copper, magnesium and manganese, whose oblique angles are less than 34 degrees for the angle beam immersion test. The transmitted shear wave should be used to scan oblique cracks greater than 34 degrees. Moreover, for angle beam contact testing, the transmitted longitudinal wave can be used to scan the oblique cracks in the aluminum alloy whose oblique angles are less than 61 degrees and the transmitted shear wave can be used to scan the oblique cracks greater than 61 degrees. The wavelength of transmitted shear waves is shorter than that of longitudinal waves at the same frequency; hence the transmitted shear wave has better resolution than transmitted longitudinal waves. However, for the same frequency and propagation distance, the transmitted shear wave will be attenuated faster than transmitted longitudinal waves. Hence, it is not suitable to use transmitted shear waves to detect deep discontinuities and to test strongly attenuated material. Keywords: converted wave, shear wave, nondestructive testing.

INTRODUCTION
In ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT), ultrasound is used to nondestructively detect discontinuities or estimate the physical characteristics of a material. The most frequently used ultrasonic wave is the longitudinal wave, due to the simplicity of generation and the ability to acoustically couple the transducer to the test specimen. However, the other wave types (shear and surface waves) have their merits. For instance, shear waves have a better resolution for detecting small discontinuities than do longitudinal waves at the same frequency. Some kinds of discontinuities reflect shear waves much better than longitudinal waves and shear waves can also be used to test near vertical cracks (Kuttruff, 1991).
* Institute of Applied Geophysics, National Chung Cheng University, Min-hsiung, Chia-yi 621, Taiwan; 886 5 272 0411 X66208; fax 886 5 272 0807; e-mail <seichyo@eq.ccu.edu.tw>. Institute of Applied Geophysics, National Chung Cheng University, Min-hsiung, Chia-yi 621, Taiwan.

Shear waves are usually produced by mode conversion for longitudinal waves impinging on an interface at an incident angle other than normal in ultrasonic NDT. Therefore, the pulse/echo angle beam and immersion techniques are the common forms of shear wave NDT (Bar-Cohen, 1991; Chang, 1991). An example of shear waves used in ultrasonic NDT is the time of flight of a longitudinal wave and refracted shear wave used to calculate the velocity C-scans for estimating the elastic modulus variation in ceramics and composites (Gruber et al., 1988). In addition, shear waves are produced by mode conversion from a focused acoustic beam being incident from water to a solid material and a high resolution of the image of deep subsurface can be obtained using the shear wave acoustic microscope method (Zhang and Crean, 1991). Furthermore, shear waves can be generated, focused and steered using pulsed laser arrays for ultrasonic NDT (Noroy et al., 1995). Moreover, a converted shear wave at the water/solid interface is used for scanning tomographic acoustic microscopy; the resolution of a shear wave scanning tomographic acoustic microscope is better than a longitudinal wave scanning tomographic acoustic microscope (Ko and Meyyappan, 1997). The diffraction and interference problems in angle beam shear wave NDT may, however, degrade the techniques accuracy. Fortunately, these problems can be suppressed and the accuracy can be improved using digital imaging techniques (Chang and Hsieh, 2002; Steinberg, 1992; Ylitalo and Ermert, 1994). The characteristics of mode conversion for a longitudinal wave impinging an interface depend on the medias acoustic impedances, the longitudinal waves incident angle and the beam angle, beam diameter, probe index and near field of transducer. The near field effect of a transducer has been discussed by Zemanek (1971). The beam angle and probe index of an ultrasonic angle probe can be obtained using a numerical calculation (Fukuhara et al., 1985). The beam angle and beam diameter can be measured using the international standard reference blocks (International Organization for Standardization, 1999). After recognizing what material and for what kind of discontinuity one will be testing, the optimum wave type and optimum incident angle must be determined before performing ultrasonic angle beam NDT. In this study, the cumulative transmission energies of the transmitted longitudinal and shear waves specularly reflected from a discontinuity using angle beam techniques are theoretically calculated. Some experiments are implemented for verifying the theoretical calculation and to show the capability and applicability of angle beam shear wave NDT.

REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION AT AN INTERFACE

When a plane elastic wave impinges on a plane interface, the waves will be reflected and transmitted at the interface. If the incident angle of the wave is not normal, the converted waves would be produced at the interface and then reflect and transmit from the
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interface. For example, if a plane longitudinal wave is incident on a solid/solid interface at an abnormal incident angle, some of the energy of the incident longitudinal wave can be reflected and transmitted at the interface. The other energy would be converted to shear waves and the converted shear waves would reflect and transmit at the interface. The propagation directions of the waves are assumed to obey Snells law. For similar effects of a plane shear wave impinging on a solid/solid interface at an abnormal incident angle, some of the energy of the incident shear wave would be converted to longitudinal waves and the converted longitudinal waves would then reflect and transmit at the interface. The angle and energy of the reflected and transmitted waves can be found in Ewing et al. (1957). Angle beam immersion testing provides the versatility of choosing any desired incident angle. In addition, ultrasonic discontinuity detection is usually used to test metals and water is the common fluid used as the couplant in ultrasonic immersion testing. Therefore, the reflection and transmission of ultrasound on a water/aluminum alloy interface is considered first (alloy over 90% aluminum, with copper, magnesium and manganese). In water, longitudinal wave velocity = 1500 m/s (4920 ft/s) shear wave velocity = 0 m/s (0 ft/s) density = 1 g/cm3 (0.06 lb/ft3). In the aluminum alloy, longitudinal wave velocity = 6400 m/s (21 000 ft/s) shear wave velocity = 3200 m/s (10 500 ft/s) density = 2.7 g/cm3 (0.2 lb/ft3).

Figure 1a shows the geometric relationship between the incident longitudinal wave (P), reflected longitudinal wave (Rp), transmitted longitudinal wave (Tp) and converted transmitted shear wave (Tsv) for an ultrasonic beam impinging on the water/alloy interface. Since the liquid cannot support the shear force, only the longitudinal wave can exist in the liquid. Figure 1b shows the calculated energy ratio of the waves for different incident angles . The first and second critical angles of the wave are about 14 and 28 degrees, respectively. The energy of the transmitted longitudinal wave is greater than the transmitted shear wave for 0 to 14 degree incident angles. However, the energy of the transmitted shear wave for 15 to 28 degree incident angles is greater than that for all transmitted longitudinal waves. If the transmitted longitudinal wave is specularly reflected from the discontinuity surface and transmits into the water, then the cumulative transmission energy of longitudinal waves coming into and out of the water/alloy interface can be calculated. It is the same for the transmitted shear wave. The configuration of the ray paths of the transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves is shown in Figure 2a and their cumulative transmission energies are shown in Figure 2b. The figures exhibit that the energy of the transmitted shear wave used in angle beam immersion testing with an incident angle between the first and second critical angles is greater than that for the transmitted longitudinal wave. For angle beam contact testing, the wedge is used between the transducer and test specimen for driving a particular incident angle of the longitudinal wave. In this study, the acrylic/aluminum alloy interface is considered as the wedge/specimen interface. The velocities of longitudinal and shear waves are 2730 and 1430 m/s (8960 and 4690 ft/s) and the density of the acrylic is 1.2 g/cm3 (0.07 lb/ft3). The configuration of the ray paths of the transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves for the acrylic/alloy interface is shown in Figure 3a and the cumulative transmission energy is

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Figure 1 A plane longitudinal wave impinges the water/alloy interface with an incident angle : (a) the geometric relationship between the incident longitudinal wave (P), reflected longitudinal wave (Rp), transmitted longitudinal wave (Tp) and converted transmitted shear wave (Tsv); (b) the energy ratio of reflected and transmitted waves.
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Figure 2 Longitudinal wave impinges a water/alloy interface and the transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves are specularly reflected from the discontinuity surface: (a) the configuration of the ray paths of transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves; (b) the cumulative transmission energy of transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves.

shown in Figure 3b. The first and second critical angles of the wave are 26 and 58 degrees, respectively. Except that the incident angle of the wave is close to the first critical angle, the energy of the transmitted longitudinal wave reflected from the crack is greater than that of the transmitted shear wave.

with an 8 degree incident angle for the transmitted shear wave impinging the planar crack perpendicularly is shown in Figure 5c. Since the velocity of the shear wave is half that of the longitudinal wave, the travel time is shown from 19 to 26 s for clearly displaying the transmitted shear wave. The amplitudes in Figures 5b and 5c are displayed in the same grayscale, the black and white

EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS

An angle beam immersion testing system is designed for performing shear wave NDT (Figure 4). A pulser/receiver in pulse/echo mode (transmitting/receiving) is used to excite the transducer, receive the signal and synchronize the digital oscilloscope. The received signal is displayed on the digital oscilloscope. A personal computer retrieves the digitized radio frequency signal from the oscilloscope via a IEEE-488 general purpose interface bus and processes them. A step motor controlled by the personal computer is used to automatically move the probe. A 20 MHz and 3 mm (0.1 in.) diameter immersion transducer is used to transmit and receive the ultrasound. Three specimens were fabricated and scanned. Water was used as the couplant. In this study, the distance between the probe and specimen in the water was 10 mm (0.4 in.) and the scanning interval in space was 1 mm (0.04 in.). 15 Degree Oblique Crack An aluminum alloy block 30 mm (1.2 in.) in height, 30 mm (1.2 in.) wide and 100 mm (3.9 in.) in length with a 15 degree oblique planar crack through the specimen (Figure 5a) is scanned. The pulse/echo angle beam immersion B-scan image is shown in Figure 5b with a 4 degree incident angle of the transmitted longitudinal wave, which can impinge the planar crack perpendicularly. The ordinate is the travel time of the waves and the abscissa is the position along the scanning line on the top surface of the specimen. The image of the 15 degree oblique planar crack, marked as Tp in the figure, can be clearly seen in the B-scan image. The B-scan image

Figure 4 Block diagram of the automatic angle beam immersion scanning system.

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(c) Figure 5 A 15 degree oblique planar crack specimen was scanned by the angle beam transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves: (a) the configuration of the 15 degree oblique planar crack specimen; (b) the transmitted longitudinal wave B-scan image with a 4 degree incident angle; (c) the transmitted shear wave B-scan image with an 8 degree incident angle.
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Figure 3 Longitudinal wave impinges an acrylic/alloy interface and the transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves are specularly reflected from the discontinuity surface: (a) the configuration of the ray paths of transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves; (b) the cumulative transmission energy of transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves.

expressing the maximum and zero amplitudes of the waves and the change from black to white being linear. The transmitted shear wave reflected from the crack can be seen in Figure 5c. The multiple transmitted longitudinal waves, which are the multireflection of transmitted longitudinal waves between the top surface of the specimen and the crack, are in front of the transmitted shear waves and their amplitudes are the same as the transmitted shear waves. 75 Degree Oblique Crack An aluminum alloy block with a 75 degree oblique planar crack cut at the center of the specimen is shown in Figure 6a. The pulse/echo angle beam immersion B-scan image is shown in Figure 6b with a 13 degree incident angle for the transmitted longitudinal wave impinging the crack perpendicularly. The image of a 75 degree oblique planar crack can be clearly seen in the B-scan image. The B-scan image with a 28 degree incident angle for the transmitted shear wave impinging the crack perpendicularly is shown in Figure 6c. The amplitudes of transmitted shear waves reflected from the crack are greater than those of the transmitted longitudinal waves. However, the decay rate of the transmitted shear waves along the depth is greater than that of the transmitted longitudinal waves. A Thin Layer in the Rear of the 75 Degree Oblique Crack A 1.5 mm (0.06 in.) thick piece of the aluminum alloy is glued to the left part of the 75 degree oblique crack specimen for testing the resolution of the transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves (Figure 7a). The arrangement of scanning is the same as that used in Figure 6. The reflections from the bottom of the thin alloy sheet cannot be resolved in the transmitted longitudinal B-scan image (Figure 7b). However, they can be seen in the transmitted shear wave image (Figure 7c); even the multireflection of the transmitted shear wave in the thin piece of the alloy can be observed. In Figure 7c, it can be easily seen from the top right direction (shown by an arrow). (a)

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Figure 7 A thin layer in the rear of a 75 degree oblique crack specimen was scanned by the angle beam transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves: (a) the configuration of the thin layer glued to a 75 degree oblique planar crack specimen; (b) the transmitted longitudinal wave B-scan image with a 13 degree incident angle; (c) the transmitted shear wave B-scan image with a 28 degree incident angle.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

In reality, the sound beam of the transducer is not a thin line and the beam diverges in the far field (Zemanek, 1971). The half angle, which is the beam angle spread between 6 dB points, of the transducer used in this study in water and the aluminum alloy is 0.7 and 3.2 degrees, respectively. The near field distances of the sound beam in water and the alloy are 30 and 7 mm (1.2 and 0.3 in.), respectively. The longitudinal wave excited by the transducer is not monofrequency. Therefore, the energy of the transmitted longitudinal or transmitted shear waves reflected from the crack is an averaged effect within the sound beam contributed by all frequencies of the wave. It is difficult to quantitatively estimate the energy ratio between transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves reflected from the crack. However, the quality of the energy ratio of transmitted longitudinal to transmitted shear waves can still be made. Based on Snells law, with the calculation of the cumulative transmission energy of the waves at the water/alloy interface (Figure 2) for the angle beam immersion testing, the energy of the transmitted longitudinal wave is found to be greater than that of the transmitted shear wave reflected from the crack when the incident angles are from 0 degrees to the first critical angle (14 degrees). However, if the incident angle is greater than 15 degrees, the energy of the transmitted shear wave reflected from the crack is greater than that of the transmitted longitudinal wave. The transmitted shear wave will deviate 34 degrees from normal if the longitudinal wave impinges the interface with a 15 degree incident angle. Therefore, when the oblique angle of cracks is less than 34 degrees, it seems that the transmitted longitudinal wave is better than the transmitted shear wave in detecting these cracks. For oblique cracks greater than 34 degrees, the transmitted shear wave is better than the transmitted longitudinal wave. Hence, in Figure 5, for the 15 degree oblique crack, the energy of the transmitted longitudinal wave reflected from the crack is greater than that of the transmitted shear wave and, as shown in Figures 6 and 7, the energy of the

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(c) Figure 6 A 75 degree oblique planar crack specimen was scanned by the angle beam transmitted longitudinal and transmitted shear waves: (a) the configuration of the 75 degree oblique planar crack specimen; (b) the transmitted longitudinal wave B-scan image with a 13 degree incident angle; (c) the transmitted shear wave B-scan image with a 28 degree incident angle.
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transmitted shear wave reflected from the 75 degree oblique crack is greater than that of the transmitted longitudinal wave. The cumulative transmission energy of the waves at the acrylic/alloy interface (Figure 3), which is used to simulate the angle beam contact testing for metal, the energy of transmitted longitudinal waves is greater than that of the transmitted shear waves except that the incident angle (22 degrees) is close to the critical angle (26 degrees). The transmitted longitudinal wave will deviate 61 degrees from normal if the longitudinal wave impinges the interface with a 22 degree incident angle. Therefore, except for the very high oblique angle crack (61 degrees), the transmitted longitudinal wave will be better than the transmitted shear wave for contact testing. For the same frequency, the wavelength of the shear wave is shorter than that of the longitudinal wave that yields a better resolution of small discontinuities. Therefore, the transmitted shear wave can resolve the thin piece of the aluminum alloy and the transmitted longitudinal wave cannot (Figure 7). The attenuation of the waves amplitude in material can be expressed as (1) where Q = the quality factor d = travel distance = wavelength. In common material, the difference of Q values between longitudinal and shear waves is not large. For the same propagation distance, the transmitted shear wave will be attenuated faster than the transmitted longitudinal wave since its wavelength is shorter than that of the transmitted longitudinal wave. Therefore, the decay of the amplitude of the transmitted shear wave along the depth is faster than that of the transmitted longitudinal wave (Figures 6c and 7c). Hence, the transmitted shear wave is not suitable for detecting deep discontinuities and testing strongly attenuated materials. The real challenges surrounding B-scan images of angle beam immersion or contact testing may be more complex than those described in this study. The other mode conversion wave types may occur at any interface if the wave is not of normal incidence to the interface for example, if the transmitted waves convert at the crack surface (transmitted longitudinal or transmitted shear
d

waves). Also, multiple longitudinal or shear waves could exist between any two interfaces. All of them add to the complexity of the image. However, these complex events can be reduced if the correct wave type and incident angle is used in the scanning. Therefore, the importance of using the optimum wave type and incident angle in angle beam ultrasonic NDT is emphasized.

REFERENCES
Bar-Cohen, Y., Ultrasonic Pulse Echo Immersion Techniques, Nondestructive Testing Handbook, second edition: Volume 7, Ultrasonic Testing, Columbus, Ohio, American Society for Nondestructive Testing, 1991, pp. 219266. Chang, F., Ultrasonic Pulse Echo Contact Techniques, Nondestructive Testing Handbook, second edition: Volume 7, Ultrasonic Testing, Columbus, Ohio, American Society for Nondestructive Testing, 1991, pp. 187-217. Chang, Y.F. and C.I. Hsieh, Time of Flight Diffraction Imaging for Doubleprobe Technique, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, Vol. 49, 2002, pp. 776-783. Ewing, W.M., W.S. Jardetzky and F. Press, Elastic Waves in Layered Media, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1957. Fukuhara, H., T. Saito and K. Kimura, Numerical Calculation of Probe Index and Beaming Angle of Ultrasonic Angle Probe, Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on NDT, Vol. 2, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1985, pp. 10321039. Gruber, J.J., J.M. Smith and R.H. Brockelman, Ultrasonic Velocity C-scans for Ceramic and Composite Material Characterization, Materials Evaluation, Vol. 46, 1988, pp. 90-96. International Organization for Standardization, ISO 12715, Ultrasonic Nondestructive Testing: Reference Block and Test Procedures for the Characterization for Contact Search Unit Beam Profiles, Geneva, Switzerland, International Organization for Standardization, 1999. Ko, D. and A. Meyyappan, Scanning Tomographic Acoustic Microscopy Using S-waves, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, Vol. 44, 1997, pp. 425-430. Kuttruff, H., Ultrasonics Fundamentals and Applications, London, Elsevier Applied Science, 1991. Noroy, M.H., D. Royer and M.A. Fink, Shear-wave Focusing with a Laserultrasound Phased-array, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, Vol. 42, 1995, pp. 981-988. Steinberg, B.D., Digital Beamforming in Ultrasound, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, Vol. 39, 1992, pp. 716-721. Ylitalo, J.T. and H. Ermert, Ultrasound Synthetic Aperture Imaging: Monostatic Approach, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, Vol. 41, 1994, pp. 333-339. Zemanek, J., Beam Behavior within the Near Field of a Vibrating Piston, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 49, 1971, pp. 181-191. Zhang, D. and G.M. Crean, S-wave Imaging for Deep Nondestructive Evaluation, Electronics Letters, Vol. 27, 1991, pp. 2248-2250.

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