Caracterización dimensional con ultrasonido por arreglo de fases de discontinuidades inducidas en acero ASTM A36 mediante procesos de electroerosión y soldadura SMAW

This research evaluates the effect of the variables of Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing(PAUT) on the sectoral angular beam scans “S-Scan” and the geometric morphology of planar discontinuities such as the inclination forthe ultrasonic beam and the shape of the extremity on accuracy in measurements. The study was carried out in two stages. Duringthe first stage, eight ASTM A36 steel samples with machined notches by penetration from EDM and a welded sample with lack of penetration in a butt weld were designed and produced. In the second stage, it wasmeasured the size of the discontinuities using ultrasound inspection and different configurations of the phase arrangement. The effect of each variable and inspection setting with errors between 0.2 % and 120 % were determined by statistical analysis.

Interaction of acoustic waves with moving boundary surfaces

A quasi-static approximation is considered for the interaction of a probing ultrasonic beam with a vibrating boundary surface. The model is considered in the form of a boundary value problem, presented in the form of d'Alembert. The method of successive approximations was used for the solution. The error arising from this interaction is established. Keywords: quasi-static approximation, boundary value problem, d'Alembert form, Doppler effect, rheological medium. [email protected]; [email protected]

Ultrasound probe tilt impedes the needle-beam alignment during the ultrasound-guided procedures

The objective of this study was to identify the factors that complicate the needle visualization in ultrasound-guided in-plane needling procedures. Forty-nine residents were recruited and randomized to insert the simulated blood vessel with four different views including Neutral (the long axis of the probe along the visual axis and the ultrasonic beam vertical to the surface of gel phantom), 45°-rotation (45° angle between the long axis of probe and the operator’s visual axis), 45°-tilt (45° angle between the ultrasonic beam and the surface of gel phantom) and 45°-rotation plus 45°-tilt of probe. Number of needle redirections, insertion time, and needle visibility were documented and compared for each procedure. When the residents faced with 45°-tilt view, the needle redirections (2 vs 0) and insertion time increased significantly (39 vs 16) compared with that of the Neutral view. When faced with 45°-rotation plus 45°-tilt view, the residents’ performance decreased further as compared with that of the 45°-tilt view and the Neutral view. However, there was no performance difference between the Neutral view and 45°-rotation view. In conclusion, during ultrasound-guided in-plane procedures, tilting the ultrasound probe may increase the difficulty of needle-beam alignment.

Propagation and Attenuation Characteristics of an Ultrasonic Beam in Dissimilar-Metal Welds

Ultrasonic inspection of welds joining dissimilar metals in nuclear power plants has proven to be a challenge, because the ultrasonic waves are subject to diffraction, distortion, scattering, and noise. These perturbations are due to their interactions with coarse-grained microstructures having anisotropic and heterogeneous metallurgical properties that can promote ultrasonic attenuation. In this paper, to improve the reliability of ultrasonic testing for dissimilar-metal welds (DMWs), ultrasonic beam characteristics for DMWs with a buttering layer were investigated in order to analyze the beam distortion phenomenon caused by inhomogeneous anisotropic properties and coarse grains. Ultrasonic testing was performed on DMW specimens using single ultrasonic transducers to investigate the behavior of the ultrasonic beam in the welds. According to the anisotropic and heterogeneous properties, when passing through the weld and the buttering layer of the DMW, ultrasonic waves were distorted and attenuation was high. In particular, in the case of using angular incidence that passed through the weld and the buttering layer in turn, the received ultrasonic data did not contain accurate internal information. From this, it was verified that internal defects may be detected by transmitting ultrasonic waves in different directions. Finally, the existing limitations on the application of non-destructive ultrasonic testing to dissimilar-metal welds were verified, and a solution to the measurement method was proposed.

Selected Aspects of Ultrasonic Testing of Difficult Materials

Welding is considered as a “Special Process”, which means that its quality cannot be readily verified and its successful application requires specialist management, personnel and procedures. It is important to conduct proper testing of the welded joints, including volumetric testing. In this case there are conducted ultrasonic testing, which enable detecting volumetric discontinuities. Ultrasonic testing meets many problems while testing joints with large anisotropy. The problems are caused by the physical phenomena, e.g. transformation, dispersion and absorption of the wave. It is connected with the structure of the material, which cause different propagation of the ultrasonic beam. The article presents the review of the factors affecting the quality of ultrasonic testing.

Accounting for pressure-dependent ultrasonic beam skew in transversely isotropic rocks: combining modelling and measurement of anisotropic wave speeds

SUMMARY The intrinsic anisotropy of rock influences the paths of propagating seismic waves and indicates mineralogical texture and strains; and as such it is important that laboratory measurements of such properties be fully understood. Usually, when studying anisotropy, ultrasonic wave speeds are measured in a variety of strategic directions and, subsequently transformed to the dynamic elastic moduli using symmetry-appropriate formula. For transversely isotropic rocks the moduli are ideally found by measuring wave speeds in directions vertical, parallel and oblique to the foliation or bedding using finite-width ultrasonic transducers. An important, but ignored, complication is that at oblique angles the ultrasonic beam unavoidably deviates, or skews, away from the transmitter's normal axis making proper wave speed determinations difficult. The pressure dependence of the wave speeds further confounds finding a solution as skew angles, too, vary with confining pressure. We develop a new technique that incorporates dual ultrasonic receivers to account for and mitigate the effects of the pressure-dependent beam skew problem. Anisotropy measurements to 200 MPa hydrostatic confining pressure combined with recent beam modeling algorithms illustrate the errors obtained in the determined wave speeds that are subsequently magnified in calculating the full set of elastic stiffnesses. In materials with P-wave anisotropies near 30 per cent the error introduced by ignoring beam skew exceeds the transit time picking errors by more than a factor of three, these propagate to much larger errors in the stiffnesses particularly for C13 and the dynamic elastic moduli referred to C13. Meanwhile, shortening the sample or enlarging the transmitter size is not suggested to counter the beam skew issue because it reduces the beam skew effect but increases the diffraction effect.