NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING

A Comprehensive Guide to NDT

Prabhu TL

Nestfame Creations Pvt. Ltd.

[ Nondestructive Testing ]
Copyright © [2021] Prabhu TL. All rights reserved.
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 PREFACE
Nondestructive testing (NDT) is the process of inspecting, testing, or evaluating materials, components or assemblies
for discontinuities, or differences in characteristics without destroying the serviceability of the part or system. In other
words, when the inspection or test is completed the part can still be used.
In contrast to NDT, other tests are destructive in nature and are therefore done on a limited number of samples ("lot
sampling"), rather than on the materials, components or assemblies actually being put into service.
These destructive tests are often used to determine the physical properties of materials such as impact resistance,
ductility, yield and ultimate tensile strength, fracture toughness and fatigue strength, but discontinuities and differences
in material characteristics are more effectively found by NDT.
Today modern nondestructive tests are used in manufacturing, fabrication and in-service inspections to ensure product
integrity and reliability, to control manufacturing processes, lower production costs and to maintain a uniform quality
level. During construction, NDT is used to ensure the quality of materials and joining processes during the fabrication
and erection phases, and in-service NDT inspections are used to ensure that the products in use continue to have the
integrity necessary to ensure their usefulness and the safety of the public.
It should be noted that while the medical field uses many of the same processes, the term "nondestructive testing" is
generally not used to describe medical applications.
Test method names often refer to the type of penetrating medium or the equipment used to perform that test. Current
NDT methods are: Acoustic Emission Testing (AE), Electromagnetic Testing (ET), Laser Testing Methods (LM),
Leak Testing (LT), Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL), Liquid Penetrant Testing (PT), Magnetic Particle Testing (MT),
Neutron Radiographic Testing (NR), Radiographic Testing (RT), Thermal/Infrared Testing (IR), Ultrasonic Testing
(UT), Vibration Analysis (VA) and Visual Testing (VT).
The six most frequently used test methods are MT, PT, RT, UT, ET and VT. Each of these test methods will be
described here, followed by the other, less often used test methods.
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. What Is Non-destructive Testing?
2. Acoustic methods
3. Coating thickness measurement methods
4. Where Is Non-Destructive Testing Used?
5. NDT Test Methods
6. Visual Inspection (VT)
7. Codes and Standards Overview
8. Optical Aids Used In NDT
9. Holographic Non-Destructive Testing
10. ACFM technique
11. Codes and Standards Bodies Involved in NDT Industry
12. Erosion corrosion
13. Laser-based inspection
14. The Benefits of Laser-Based Inspection
15. Basic Principles of Liquid Penetrant Inspection
16. Step by Step Dye Penetrant Testing
17. Magnetic Particle Examination
18. Magnetization of Ferromagnetic Materials
19. Ultrasonic Testing Procedure
20. ULTRASONIC TESTING IN DETAIL
21. Radiographic Testing Procedure
22. Visual Testing
23. ACOUSTIC EMISSION (AE) OVERVIEW
24. Introduction to Acoustic Emission Testing
25. A Brief History of AE Testing
26. Theory - AE Sources
27. Theory - Acoustic Waves
28. Equipment
29. AE Signal Features
30. Data Display
31. AE Source Location Techniques
32. AE Barkhausen Techniques
33. AE Applications
34. Eddy Current Testing (ET) Overview
35. History of Eddy Current Testing
36. Basic Principles of Eddy Current Inspection
37. Present State of Eddy Current Inspection
38. Properties of Electricity
39. Current Flow and Ohm's Law
40. Induction and Inductance
41. Self-Inductance and Inductive Reactance
42. Mutual Inductance
43. Circuits and Phase
44. Impedance
45. Depth of Penetration & Current Density
46. Phase Lag
47. Eddy Current Instruments
48. Resonant Circuits
49. Bridges
50. Display - Complex Impedance Plane
51. Display - Analog Meter
52. Absolute Probes
53. Probes - Configurations
54. Probes - Shielding & Loading
55. Coil (Probe) Design
56. Impedance Matching
57. Reference Standards
58. Signal Filtering
59. Surface Crack Detection Using Sliding Probes
60. Tube Inspection
61. Conductivity Measurements
62. Verification of Heat Treatment
63. Thickness Measurements of Thin Material
64. Thickness Measurements of Non Conducting Coatings on Conductive Materials
65. Advanced Techniques - Scanning
66. Multiple Frequency Techniques
67. Swept Frequency
68. Pulsed Eddy Current Inspection
69. Remote Field Sensing
70. GUIDED WAVE TESTING (GW) Overview
71. Ground Penetrating Radar
72. Laser Testing Methods
73. Leak Testing
74. LEAK DETECTION METHODS AND DEFINING THE SIZES OF LEAKS
75. Magnetic Flux Leakage
76. Microwave Nondestructive Testing
77. Neutron Radiography Testing
78. Thermal Infrared Testing
79. Scientific Principles of Thermal Testing
80. Equipment - Imaging Technology
81. Techniques and Select Industrial Applications of Thermal Imaging
82. Vibration Analysis
83. Vibration Analysis: FFT, PSD, and Spectrogram Basics
84. Facility integrity assessments can fuel gains in the oil and gas sector
85. Utility Mapping for Risk Reduction in Oil and Gas
86. Innovation: the key to effective boiler inspection
87. Pipeline Repair: Considerations for Determining the Most Appropriate Method
88. Applus+ PU12 remote inspection tool combines expertise with design thinking for a complete transformation
of the client experience in oil & gas
89. Single sided Phased Array: Developments in weld ultrasonic inspection
90. Material evaluation using Infrared “Active” Thermography
91. The Applus+ RTD DTI Trekscan, a new addition to the suite of tools for inspection of Difficult To Inspect
pipelines
92. Developments in digital radiographic inspection
93. Radiography Inspection Method through CR
94. Geo-hazard Monitoring of Pipelines using Strain Gauges
95. CiBot carburization measurements: The process that allows non-destructive inspection on radiant coils in the
furnaces
96. Pulsed Eddy Current for corrosion
97. 3D Modeling & BIM Using Laser Scanning
98. Crack Management Series
99. Non-destructive material verification uncovers hidden manufacturing process flaws
100. The advantages and disadvantages of advanced NDT
101. NDT - Visual Inspection (VT) & Boroscopy
102. Weld Qualification Testing
103. Basic Principles of Liquid Penetrant Inspection
104. Developers
105. Discuss advantages, limitations and applications of NDT method
106. Electromagnetic Testing Inspections
107. PRINCIPLE OF DIRECT PRESSURE (DROP) TYPE AIR LEAK TEST
108. Magnetic Field Characteristics
109. Electromagnetic Fields
110. Suspension Liquids
111. Wet Suspension Inspection
112. Continuous and Residual Magnetization Techniques
113. Infrared Thermography and Nondestructive Evaluation
114. Contact vs. Noncontact Measurement
115. INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY AS A NON-DESTRUCTIVE TOOL
116. History of NDT-Instrumentation
117. A Smart Eddy Current Sensor Dedicated to the Nondestructive Evaluation
118. Ultrasonic Transducers for Nondestructive Testing
119. Ultrasonic Testing – Pulse-Echo Method
120. Ultrasonic Examination – Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD)
121. Straight Beam Tests
122. Angle Beam Probe Selection
123. Data Presentation
124. A-Scans and C-Scans
125. NDT - Phased Array Ultrasonic testing (PAUT)
126. PAUT - Phased Array Ultrasonic testing
127. PAUT Corrosion & thickness mapping
128. Time of Flight Diffraction Technique (TOFD)
129. Grain Noise
130. Influence of Metal Microstructures
131. Terahertz Imaging
132. Automated Eddy Current Testing for Aero-engine Components
133. Automated Ultrasonic Scanners: Impact of Axes Misalignment
134. Flexible UT Inspection
135. Contrôle Non Destructif des Soudures par Ultrasons
136. Weld evaluation of brazed camshafts using ultrasonic testing
137. Dynamic Range Enhancement for Automated Ultrasonic Testing of Composites
138. Automated Contour Following for NDT Ultrasonic Testing of Large Aerospace Parts
139. Turbine Blade Inspection
140. Ultrasonic Testing Solution for Inspection of Aluminum Cast Molding Blocks
141. Advanced nondestructive testing
142. Automated Ultrasonic Testing: Transducer Squint Angle Correction
143. Ultrasonic C-Scan Imaging for Evaluating the Integrity of Brazed Parts
144. Ultrasonic Testing: Defect-Sizing in Composite Structures
145. Multi-channel Flatbed Ultrasonic Squirter System for Inspection of Large Aerospace Composite
Panels
146. Automated Phased Array Testing
147. Solving NDT Demands with the Right Products
148. NDT Software Solutions to Empower Automated NDT Systems
149. Inspection of Composite Materials in Aerospace Applications
150. Automated Thickness Measurements Of High Pressure Aero-Engine Turbine Blades
151. Challenges of Performing Automated Ultrasonic Inspection
152. Automated Ultrasonic Inspection of Brazed Joints in Helicopter Engine Turbine Nozzle
153. Automated Eddy Current Inspection of Aerospace Bearing Raceways
What Is Non-destructive Testing?
Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a wide group of analysis techniques used in science
and technology industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system
without causing damage. The terms Nondestructive examination (NDE), Nondestructive
inspection (NDI), and Nondestructive evaluation(NDE) are also commonly used to
describe this technology. Because NDT does not permanently alter the article being
inspected, it is a highly valuable technique that can save both money and time in product
evaluation, troubleshooting, and research.

Today modern nondestructive tests are used in manufacturing, fabrication and in-service
inspections to ensure product integrity and reliability, to control manufacturing
processes, lower production costs and to maintain a uniform quality level. During
construction, NDT is used to ensure the quality of materials and joining processes
during the fabrication and erection phases, and in-service NDT inspections are used to
ensure that the products in use continue to have the integrity necessary to ensure their
usefulness and the safety of the public.
NDT is commonly used in forensic engineering, mechanical engineering, petroleum
engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, systems engineering, aeronautical
engineering, medicine, and art. Innovations in the field of nondestructive testing have
had a profound impact on medical imaging, including on echocardiography, medical
ultrasonography, and digital radiography.

Non-destructive testing is a descriptive term used for the examination of materials and
components in such a way that allows materials to be examined without changing or
destroying their usefulness. NDT or NDE can be used to find, size and locate surface
and subsurface flaws and defects.
NDT plays a crucial role in everyday life and is necessary to assure safety and
reliability. Typical examples are found in aircraft, spacecraft (shuttle), motor vehicles,
pipelines, bridges, trains, power stations, refineries, buildings and oil platforms which
are all inspected using NDT.
NDT is a Quality Assurance management tool which can give impressive results when
used correctly. It requires an understanding of the various methods available, their
capabilities and limitations, knowledge of the relevant standards and specifications for
performing the tests.
Materials, products and equipment which fail to achieve their design requirements or
projected life due to undetected defects may require expensive repair or early
replacement. Such defects may also be the cause of unsafe conditions or catastrophic
failure, as well as loss of revenue due to unplanned plant shutdown.
Non destructive testing can be applied to each stage of an item's construction. The
materials and welds can be examined using NDT and either accepted, rejected or
repaired. NDT techniques can then be used to monitor the integrity of the item or
structure throughout it's design life.
NDT is used typically for the following reasons:
o Accident prevention and to reduce costs
o To improve product reliability
 o To determine acceptance to a given requirement
o To qive information on repair criteria.
In order to gain the information and obtain valid results, the following is required:
o Visual Inspection
o Liquid Penetrant Inspection
o Acoustic Emission
o Magnetic Particle Inspection
o Eddy Current Inspection
o Ultrasonic Inspection
o Radiographic Inspection
DESTRUCTIVE VS. NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING

Before we go any further, we should clarify that there are some methods used to test
materials that alter—or even damage and destroy—the materials tested.

The use of these methods is called Destructive Testing.

In Destructive Testing, a piece of the material might be scraped away for analysis or
altered in some way onsite.

Here are some examples:

● Macro sectioning. Macro sectioning tests a small section of a welded material by

polishing and etching it for examination.
● Tensile testing. Also called tension testing, this is a destructive testing technique
that uses controlled tension applied to a sample material to see how it reacts.
Tension could be applied to test certain loads or conditions, or to test a material’s
failure point.
● 3 point bend testing. 3 point bend testing examines the soundness and flexibility
(or ductility) of a material by taking a sample of it, called a coupon, and bending
it in three points to a specified angle.
NDT CODES AND STANDARDS

NDT techniques can be used for all kinds of inspections. But some of the most important
types of NDT inspections are of assets like boilers and pressure vessels, which could
be incredibly dangerous if not properly maintained.

Because proper maintenance of these assets is so important for the safety of those
working nearby (or even at a distance, when it comes to nuclear power plants), most
countries have laws requiring companies to adhere to specific inspection codes and
standards when conducting inspections.

These standards and codes typically require inspections to be conducted periodically

following specific guidelines. For the most assets that present the greatest risk, these
inspections must be both conducted by a certified inspector and approved by a certified
witness working for a formal inspection body.

Here are the most commonly followed organizations in the world for creating NDT
standards and codes:

● API (American Petroleum Institute)

● ASME (American Society for Mechanical Engineers)
● ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials)
● ASNT (American Society For Nondestructive Testing)
● COFREND (French Committee for Non-destructive Testing Studies)
● CSA Group (Canadian Standards Association)
● CGSB (Canadian General Standards Board)

WHY USE NDT?

Here are the top reasons NDT is used by so many companies throughout the world:

● Savings. The most obvious answer to this question is that NDT is more appealing
than destructive testing because it allows the material or object being examined to
survive the examination unharmed, thus saving money and resources.
 ● Safety. NDT is also appealing because almost all NDT techniques (except
radiographic testing) are harmless to people.
● Efficiency. NDT methods allow for the thorough and relatively quick evaluation
of assets, which can be crucial for ensuring continued safety and performance on
a job site.
● Accuracy. NDT methods have been proven accurate and predictable, both
qualities you want when it comes to maintenance procedures meant to ensure the
safety of personnel and the longevity of equipment.
"Nondestructive testing is the life blood of a well-run facility. NDT techniques and
repeatable results depend on highly trained technicians with experience and integrity.
Industrial NDT methods and interpretation of results are performed by certified
professionals. Not only does the technician need to be certified in a specific NDT
method, but they also need to know how to operate the equipment being used to gather
data. Understanding equipment capabilities and limitations is the difference between
making an accept or reject determination."

Acoustic methods
Acoustic methods (also known as sonic testing, vibration testing, mechanical impedance
testing) depend on exciting vibrations in a specimen by a local impact and then
measuring some properties of the vibrations, eg resonant frequency, decay time, etc. The
most common acoustic method is the modern equivalent of the railway wheel tapper,
using a controlled-energy impact instead of a hammer, and a transducer detector instead
of ears. Electronic or digital data analysis and recording may also be used.

There are several other important applications of acoustic testing to specific products,
the most important being the testing of cast-iron castings, where it has been shown that
this can be related directly to the resonant frequency of the casting. Hard components all
have their own resonant frequencies, and these are dependent upon the dimensions and
stiffness of components. Stiffness is, in turn, dependent upon the microstructure,
hardness and presence of defects. Changes in any of these dependencies will cause
changes in resonant frequencies, and the components having differences from others can
be detected by these changes.

Resonant inspection can be used to detect cracks, voids, delaminations, lack of bonding
and changes in hardness, as well as dimensional outliers and components with one part
of the production process missing or wrongly performed (coating, grooves machined,
fins present etc). In addition, a ‘fingerprint’ of a high-value component can be taken, and
subsequent inspections can compare the newly acquired fingerprint with the previously
recorded one as a condition monitoring technique. The technology cannot ‘detect’ or
identify specific defects, but can detect changes in components relative to the reference
components.

As such, therefore, resonant inspection is a technology which encompasses more than

pure NDT, including techniques that can be applied to engineering components to
automate the inspection processes. Bonded joints can also be examined by a similar
technique using local changes in vibration decay.
Vibration measurements are also used in plant condition monitoring.

Acoustic ranging
An acoustic ranging apparatus directs a burst of acoustic energy towards an acoustically
reflective target object. The time it takes for an echo to return to the ranging apparatus is
measured to determine the distance between the ranging apparatus and the object. The
echo is received, amplified and compared with a threshold voltage, which decays in
time in a manner which simulates the attenuation of acoustic energy as a function of
distance travelled in the medium. The attenuation function is substantially simulated
over the distance range that the ranging apparatus is intended to accurately measure by
means of a simple, low-cost first order linear circuit. The ranging apparatus responds
only to echoes having a magnitude which exceeds the threshold voltage. Spurious or
false echoes, such as those due to reflection of acoustic energy in the side lobes
produced by an acoustic energy transducer in the ranging apparatus, are ignored.
Coating thickness measurement methods
Various methods of NDT are used for the measurement of coating thickness – paint
thickness, plating thickness, anodising etc. These methods may be X-ray, electron
backscatter, magnetic, etc and the Table gives a broad guide to the most appropriate
methods for various coatings and substrates.

Appropriate NDT techniques for coating thickness measurement

Substrates / Copper Nickel ChromiumAutocatalytic Zinc CadmiumGold Palladium

Coatings Nickel
Magnetic MX X M M1 B B B B
Steel M1 X5 MX MX MX MX
X6
Non-magnetic X X X5 B BX BX BX BX
stainless steel E4 M1 M1
X6
Copper and - X X M1 X BX BX BX
alloys M1 X6
Zinc and X X BX X6 - BX BX BX
alloys M1
Aluminium BX BX BX B BX BX BX BX
and alloys M1 E1,2
X6
Magnesium BX BX BX B BX BX BX BX
and alloys M1 X6
Nickel X - BX - X BX BX BX
Silver BX BX BX B BX - BX
 M1 X6 X6
Ni-Co-Fe M M1 MX M1 BM BM B BM
alloys X X MX X
Non-metals BX BX BX B BX BX BX BX
E4 M1 X6
Titanium BX BX X B BX BX BX BX
M1 E1,2
X6

Substrates / RhodiumSilver Tin Lead Tin- Anodic Non- Vitreous Aluminium

Coatings lead oxides metals and and alloys
alloys porcelain
enamels
Magnetic B B B B MX - BM BM BM
Steel MX MX MX MX B3 X6 X6 X
Non- BX BX BX BX X - BE E BX
magnetic E4 B3 X6 X6
stainless
steel
Copper and BX BX BX BX X E BE E X
alloys B3 X6 X6 X6
Zinc and BX BX BX BX X - BE X6 X
alloys B3 X6
Aluminium BX BX BX BX X E E E -
and alloys B3 X6
Magnesium BX BX BX BX X E E - -
and alloys B3 X6
Nickel BX BX BX BX X - BE X
 B3 X6 X6
Silver X - X BX X - BE E X
B3 X6 X6
Ni-Co-Fe BM BM BM BM MX - BM X6 X6
alloys X X X X B3 X6
Non-metals BX BX BX BX X - - - BE
B3
Titanium BX BX BX BX X - BE - -
B3

METHODS - KEY

B - beta back scatter

E - eddy current

M - magnetic/electromagnetic

X - X-ray fluorescence
Where Is Non-Destructive Testing Used?
Depending on how broadly you define NDT you could say that it’s used in almost every
industry in the world, since visual inspections (whether formalized or casual) take
place in almost every workplace in some form or other.

That being said, there are specific industries that require NDT and have formalized
processes for its use, as codified by those organizations we listed above like API and
ASME.

These industries include:

● Oil & Gas

● Power Generation
● Chemicals
● Mining
● Aerospace
● Automotive
● Maritime
● Mining

How Drones Can Help with NDT

In the last several years drones equipped with cameras have become another tool
commonly used in NDT for collecting visual data. Due to limitations in the technology,
for some time drones could only provide supplementary visual data for inspectors, but
could not take the place of inspectors physically collecting visual data themselves.
However, as drone technology has improved, inspectors have been able to use drones
more and more as RVI tools, in some instances completely replacing the need for them
to collect visual data manually.
Here are four ways drones are helping with NDT these days:

1. SAFETY

By removing the need for inspectors to enter dangerous spaces in order to collect visual
data drones are helping improve safety in the workplace.

For outdoor inspections of assets like power lines or towers, using a drone to collect
visual data reduces the amount of time a person needs to physically be in the air on the
tower or line.

For indoor inspections of assets like pressure vessels or boilers, using a drone like the
Elios 2 to collect visual data means the inspector does not have to enter a confined
space to do so, again helping significantly reduce the exposure to risk.

2. SAVINGS

Drones can help companies improve their ROI in both indoor and outdoor scenarios,
but savings are especially significant for indoor inspections.

Using a professional indoor drone instead of sending an inspector in to collect visual

data manually means that companies save on not having to build and take down
scaffolding, and can reduce downtimes associated with those requirements, in some
cases by as much as one to two days.

3. BETTER DATA

Because modern drone technology provides a visual record of an inspection in the form
of a video, inspectors can save the outputs from a flight and refer to it later to monitor
changes to assets over time.

New software created to process drone data can help provide accurate measurements
within this visual data, leading to the capture of better data and a more thorough historic
record of the life of an asset, which can be referred to at any time.

4. INCREASED FREQUENCY OF INSPECTIONS

Because drones are a relatively inexpensive solution for Visual Non-Destructive

Testing, companies can use them to increase the number of inspections performed over
time while still realizing significant savings.

Increasing inspections can help increase the longevity of a company’s assets by

revealing defects earlier in the maintenance cycle, and fixing them before they grow
worse.

Increasing inspections by using drones can also help companies be more

environmentally friendly. A recent study conducted by Boiler Room Consulting found
that using drones to inspect boilers could help reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 649
metric tons a year.

[Related reading: Can a Drone Be Used as a Formal Inspection Tool?]

WHAT’S NEXT FOR DRONES IN NDT?

To date, the primary use case for drones in NDT has been for the collection of visual
data.

But in the last few years, thermal sensors attached to drones have allowed inspectors to
collect thermal data by drone, and as time passes it’s likely that we’ll see new sensors
developed for drones to support even more NDT techniques.
NDT Test Methods
Test method names often refer to the type of penetrating medium or the equipment used
to perform that test. Current NDT methods are:
Liquid Penetrant Testing (PT),
Magnetic Particle Testing (MT),
Ultrasonic Testing (UT),
Radiographic Testing (RT),
Visual Testing (VT).
Acoustic Emission Testing (AE),
Electromagnetic Testing (ET),
Guided Wave Testing (GW),
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR),
Laser Testing Methods (LM),
Leak Testing (LT),
Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL),
Microwave Testing,
Neutron Radiographic Testing (NR),
Thermal/Infrared Testing (IR),
Vibration Analysis (VA)
The six most frequently used test methods are MT, PT, RT, UT, ET and VT. Each of
these test methods will be described here, followed by the other.
Visual Inspection (VT)
Visual inspection (VT) is arguably the oldest and most widely used NDT method there
is. For thousands of years, craftsmen have used their eyes to determine the quality of the
products they made. In essence, this is still the case with visual inspection. This method
involves the visual observation of the surface of a test object to evaluate the presence of
surface discontinuities such as corrosion, misalignment of parts, physical damage and
cracks. Visual testing can be done by looking at the test piece directly, or by using
optical instruments such as magnifying glasses, mirrors, borescopes and computer-
assisted viewing systems. VT can be applied to inspect castings, forgings, machined
components and welds and is used in all branches of industry.

VT Advantages:
· Low cost
· Portable equipment (if any)
· Immediate results
· Minimum special skills required
· Minimum part preparation

VT Limitations:
· Only suitable for surfaces than can be viewed
· Usually only larger defects can be detected
· Scratches can be misinterpreted for cracks
· Quality of inspection influenced by surface condition, physical conditions,
environmental factors and physiological factors
Codes and Standards Overview
Codes, regulatory requirements, standards, specifications and recommended practices
are used in all aspects of construction, fabrication, manufacturing and inspection. The
following is a brief description of each of these categories along with examples of how
they are used.

Codes
Codes are generally the top-tier documents, providing a set of rules that specify the
minimum acceptable level of safety for manufactured, fabricated or constructed objects.
These may incorporate regulatory requirements and will often refer out to standards or
specifications for specific details on additional requirements not specified in the Code
itself. Examples of some commonly used Codes are the ASME Boiler and Pressure
Vessel Code (B&PVC) and the AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code – Steel. The
B&PVC covers pressure-related equipment from refineries and unfired pressure vessels
to nuclear power generation, and the AWS D1.1 Code covers welded structures of all
types.

Regulations
Regulations are generally issued by a state or federal agency when public safety is an
issue. Examples of such regulatory agencies and their regulations are the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), whose regulations are found in the Code of Federal
Regulations, Title 10, Parts 0-50 (10 CFR 0-50). These regulations cover the use and
handling of radioactive materials, and the NRC has significant input into Sections III
and XI of the ASME B&PVC, which cover new nuclear construction and in-service
inspection of existing nuclear power plants. The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) provides rules for personnel safety on job sites, and the U.S.
Department of Transportation (USDOT) provides regulations for pipelines and
hazardous materials in 49 CFR 100-199.

Standards
Standards are documents that establish engineering or technical requirements for
products, practices, methods or operations. Of particular interest to NDT personnel are
those standards that provide personnel certification requirements and those that provide
requirements for performing NDT tasks. Examples of certification standards are the
ANSI/ASNT CP-189, ASNT Standard for Qualification and Certification of
Nondestructive Testing Personnel and the ANSI/ASNT CP-105, ASNT Standard
Topical Outlines for Qualification of Nondestructive Testing Personnel. Examples of
NDT performance standards are the ASTM Standard E 709, Standard Guide for
Magnetic Particle Testing, and ASTM E 1444, Standard Practice for Magnetic Particle
Testing.
Specifications
Specifications provide specific requirements for materials, components or services and
are often generated by private companies to address additional requirements applicable
to a specific product or application. Specifications are often listed in procurement
agreements or contract documents as additional requirements above and beyond code or
standard requirements.
Recommended Practices
Recommended practices provide guidelines for performing operations or functions. The
most commonly used recommended practice for NDT personnel certification
worldwide is the ASNT Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A. This document,
commonly referred to as "SNT-TC-1A," provides guidelines for employers to set up an
in-house certification program for their personnel. The premise is that employers will
incorporate the guidelines that apply to their specific needs into their written practice,
at which point those guidelines become that company's requirements for the certification
of their NDT personnel.
Optical Aids Used In NDT
Optical aids embody magnifiers, microscopes, telescopes and additionally specialized
devices like boroscopes, endoscopes and different fiber-optic devices for the
inspection of restricted access areas. These devices may be used with video equipment
systems. a lot of the success of visual examination depends on the surface condition and
therefore the lighting arrangements. Surface preparation like improvement and etching is
commonly used and additionally, surface replicas may be taken for each macro- and
microscopic examination.

Types of optical aids

The utility of optical instruments during the visual inspection is beneficial to magnify
the defect that can never detect by a naked eye helps in testing the area which is not
accessible
Microscope
It’s a combination of lenses that used to magnify the image of a small object. Minute
defects and details of fine structure on the test surface can easily be detected with a
microscope. Optical microscope is generally used to evaluate with reference to the
shape and orientation of the crack
Boroscope
Boroscope is generally used to inspect the inaccessible areas like the inside wall of a
narrow tube, bore or chamber. The boroscope consists of a precision built-in
illumination system. The size of a visual field varies with the diameter, for a given
magnification system.
Endoscope
It is almost the same as a boroscope. The main adding advantage of the endoscope is
that It has a superior optical system and a high-intensity light source. A unique feature of
the endoscope is that objects are perpetually focused from regarding 4mm to time. The
“no focusing” feature of endoscope makes it abundant easier to use than a borescope
Telescope
It is used to get enlarged pictures of objects at a tidy distance from the attention. It is
especially helpful for providing a visual examination of the surface. It consists of 2
lenses known as objective or eyepiece
Holography
Holography is a name given to the strategy of getting an accurate/perfect 3D image of a
given object. It is employed for the NDT of surfaces of extremely sophisticated and
exactitude elements while not the disadvantages of getting to use a high power
magnifier. It can offer a record of the image of a complete surface which may be
promptly compared therewith of a typical defect-free surface.
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Holographic Non-Destructive Testing

A single large ultrasonic transducer which sends out ultrasonic waves towards the
object under study and it scans the object. The scattered waves from the object from the
object waves. A received transducer collects the scattered object wave and converts
them into electrical signals. The reference electrical waves are given by the RF
oscillator and these object to reference waves are made to interference by the electronic
adder. The interference pattern is formed on the fluorescent screen of the cathode
photographic film is developed.
The developed photographic film serves as a hologram. The hologram is illuminated
by a low power laser like He- Ne laser which acts as the optical reference source. The
T.V camera takes the videograph of the 3 D image of the object and it displays on the
T.V monitor
ACFM technique
The Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM) technique is a non-contact
electromagnetic technique capable of both detecting and sizing (length and depth)
defects in metals. The basis of the technique is that an alternating current flows in a thin
skin near the surface of any conductor. By introducing a remote uniform current into an
area of the component under test, when there are no defects present, the electrical
current will be undisturbed. If a crack is present the current flows around the ends and
down the faces of the crack.

The current flowing in the surface has an associated magnetic field above the surface
and this magnetic field will also be disturbed if the current is disturbed by a defect. The
ACFM method involves the measurement of this magnetic field. The magnitude of any
disturbances in the field can then be related back to the size of defect causing them by
the use of mathematical models. In its simplest form, ACFM involves the use of a single
hand-held probe which contains the field induction and the field measurement sensors.
This is then connected to an ACFM instrument which is, in turn, controlled by a PC
which provides data displays and recording.

As the technique requires no electrical contact with the surface, it can be used to inspect
through paint and coatings. The technique is widely used for weld and thread inspection
and for subsea inspection of offshore platforms. It can also be used on both magnetic
and non-magnetic components
and at elevated temperatures in excess of 600°C.

Array probes containing large numbers of sensors can be deployed either manually or
robotically, typically in situations where larger areas need to be inspected or where
‘pick and place’ deployment is preferable to probe scanning. ACFM array systems have
been incorporated into automated inspection systems to give simple PASS/FAIL
reporting, thus avoiding the need for skilled operators.
The ACFM method should only be applied to surface-breaking defects when used on
carbon steels but is suitable for subsurface flaws in some non-magnetic materials.
Codes and Standards Bodies Involved in
NDT Industry
Most countries have one or more organizations (“standards bodies”) that develop and
publish technical industrial standards. Some don't, and those usually reference existing
codes and standards for their manufacturing, fabrication and construction projects. In the
United States, these organizations are usually independent organizations from private
industry, but in many countries they are government agencies. The listing below, which
is not all-inclusive, provides examples of some of the standards bodies that are
commonly used by NDT personnel.
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING, INC. (ASNT)
The American Society for Nondestructive Testing is a member-based, non-profit
professional society that provides NDT-related reference materials, technical
conferences and the following certification documents. ASNT does not publish
standards that describe how to perform NDT tasks; those are published by ASTM
International and are discussed in that section.
ASTM INTERNATIONAL
ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) is one
of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world, providing
technical standards for materials, products, systems and services. Over 180 ASTM
NDT standards are published in the ASTM Annual Book of Standards, Volume 03.03,
Nondestructive Testing. ASTM defines three of their document categories as follows:

● A “guide” is a compendium of information or series of options that does not

recommend a specific course of action. A guide increases the awareness of
information and approaches in a given subject area.

● A “practice” is a definitive set of instructions for performing one or more

specific operations or functions that does not produce a test result. Examples of
practices include, but are not limited to: application, assessment, cleaning,
 collection, decontamination, inspection, installation, preparation, sampling,
screening and training.

● A "test method" is a definitive procedure that produces a test result.

Examples of test methods include, but are not limited to: identification,
measurement and evaluation of one or more qualities, characteristics or
properties.

Some of the more commonly used ASTM NDT standards are as follows. Additional
standards can be found in the ASTM Annual Book of Standards, Volume 03.03.
ASTM E709: Standard Guide for Magnetic Particle Testing

ASTM E1444: Standard Practice for Magnetic Particle Testing

ASTM E165: Standard Practice for Liquid Penetrant Examination for General
Industry

ASTM E1417: Standard Practice for Liquid Penetrant Testing

ASTM E1208: Standard Practice for Liquid Penetrant Testing using the Lipophilic Post-
Emulsifiable Process

ASTM E1209: Standard Practice for Liquid Penetrant Testing using the Water-Washable
Process

ASTM E1210: Standard Practice for Liquid Penetrant Testing using the Hydrophilic
Post-Emulsifiable Process

ASTM E1219: Standard Practice for Liquid Penetrant Testing using the Solvent-
Removable Process

ASTM E114: Practice for Ultrasonic Pulse-Echo Straight-Beam Examination by the

Contact Method

ASTM E164: Standard Practice for Contact Ultrasonic Testing of Weldments

ASTM E213: Standard Practice for Ultrasonic Testing of Metal Pipe and Tubing

ASTM E2375: Standard Practice for Ultrasonic Testing of Wrought Products

 ASTM E94: Guide for Radiographic Examination

ASTM E1742: Practice for Radiographic Examination

ASTM E1000: Guide for Radioscopy

ASTM E1255: Practice for Radioscopy

ASTM E1030: Test Method for Radiographic Examination of Metallic Castings

ASTM E1032: Test Method for Radiographic Examination of Weldments

ASTM E999: Guide for Controlling the Quality of Industrial Radiographic Film
Processing

ASTM E142: Method for Controlling Quality of Radiographic Testing

ASTM E2007: Standard Guide for Computed Radiography

ASTM E2738: Standard Practice for Digital Imaging and Communication

Nondestructive Evaluation (DICONDE) for Computed Radiography (CR)
Test methods

ASTM E268: Electromagnetic testing

ASTM E426: Practice for Electromagnetic (Eddy-Current) Examination of Seamless

and Welded Tubular Products, Austenitic Stainless Steel and Similar
Alloys

ASTM E1962: Standard Practice for Ultrasonic Surface Testing using Electromagnetic
Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) Techniques

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS (ASME)

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a not-for-profit professional
organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development
across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in
society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education
and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical
knowledge and a safer world. ASME publishes multiple codes and standards including
(but not limited to) the following documents.
The “ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code” (BPVC). The 2010 edition of the BPVC
with 2011 addenda was made available in July 2011. This code is made up of 12
sections, or “books,” covering the following subjects:

I. Power Boilers

II. Materials

III. Rules for Construction of Nuclear Facility Components

IV. Heating Boilers

V. Nondestructive Examination

VI. Recommended Rules for the Care and Operation of Heating Boilers

VII. Recommended Guidelines for the Care of Power Boilers

VIII. Pressure Vessels

IX. Welding and Brazing Qualifications

X. Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Pressure Vessels

XI. Rules for In-service Inspection of Nuclear Power Plant Components

XII. Rules for Construction and Continued Service of Transport Tanks

The BPVC is now published biennially in odd-numbered years without addenda in the
intervening year.
ASME B31.1, Power Piping. This code contains requirements for piping systems
typically found in electric power-generating stations, industrial institutional plants,
geothermal heating systems, and heating and cooling systems.
ASME B31.3, Process Piping. This Code contains requirements for piping typically
found in petroleum refineries; chemical, pharmaceutical, textile, paper, semiconductor
and cryogenic plants; and related processing-plant terminals.

AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE (API)

The American Petroleum Institute is a national trade association that represents all
aspects of America’s oil and natural-gas industry, including producers, refiners,
suppliers, pipeline operators, marine transporters and service and supply companies.
Among the standards that API publishes are the following:
API Pressure Vessel Inspection Code: In-Service Inspection, Rating,
510: Repair and Alteration

API Piping Inspection Codes: In-service Inspection, Rating, Repair,

570: and Alteration of Piping Systems

API Welded Tanks for Oil Storage

650:

API Tank Inspection, Repair, Alteration, and Reconstruction

653:

API Welding of Pipelines and Related Facilities

1104:

AMERICAN WELDING SOCIETY (AWS)

The American Welding Society is a nonprofit organization with the goal of advancing
the science, technology and application of welding and related joining disciplines. AWS
provides certification programs for welding inspectors, supervisors, educators, etc.,
and publishes multiple standards, many of which contain procedures for the application
of nondestructive testing methods and techniques above and beyond visual inspection. A
few of their standards are listed here:
 AWS D1.1: Structural Welding Code - Steel

AWS D1.2: Structural Welding Code - Aluminum

AWS D1.3: Structural Welding Code - Sheet Steel

AWS D1.5: Bridge Welding Code

AWS D1.6: Structural Welding Code - Stainless Steel

AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION (AIA)

The Aerospace Industries Association is a trade association with more than 100 major
aerospace and defense member companies. These companies embody every high-
technology manufacturing segment of the U.S. aerospace and defense industry from
commercial aviation and avionics, to manned and unmanned defense systems, to space
technologies and satellite communications.
The AIA publishes multiple aviation and aerospace-related standards, two of which are
shown below:

● NAS 410, NAS Certification & Qualification of Nondestructive Test

Personnel. This employer-based certification standard establishes the minimum
requirements for the qualification and certification of personnel performing
nondestructive testing (NDT), nondestructive inspection (NDI), or nondestructive
evaluation (NDE) in the aerospace manufacturing, service, maintenance and
overhaul industries. In 2002, NAS 410 was harmonized with European Norm
4179 (listed in the CEN section), so that the requirements in both documents are
identical.

● NAS 999, Nondestructive Inspection of Advanced Composite Structures.

This specification establishes the requirements for non-destructive inspection
(NDI), NDI standards, NDI methods, and NDI acceptance criteria.
NATIONAL BOARD OF BOILER AND PRESSURE VESSEL INSPECTORS
The National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors is a non-profit
organization that promotes greater safety to life and property through uniformity in the
construction, installation, repair, maintenance and inspection of pressure equipment.
The National Board membership oversees adherence to laws, rules and regulations
relating to boilers and pressure vessels. NBBI provides training, and it issues In-
service and New Construction commissions for Authorized Inspectors (AIs),
Authorized Nuclear Inspectors (ANIs) and Authorized Nuclear In-service Inspectors
(ANIIs).
NBBI publishes the “National Boiler Inspection Code” (NBIC), which provides
standards for the installation, inspection and repair and/or alteration of boilers,
pressure vessels and

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION (ISO)

The International Organization for Standardization, the world's largest developer and
publisher of International Standards, is a non-governmental organization located in
Geneva, Switzerland. ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 161
countries, one member per country. Many of the ISO member institutes are part of the
governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. Other
members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national
partnerships of industry associations. Three of the many ISO standards are listed below:

● ISO 9712, Non-destructive testing - Qualification and certification of

personnel. This International standard, which was revised in 2012, provides the
requirements for the NDT certification of NDT personnel by an accredited third-
party certification body that conforms to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17024,
Conformity assessment — General requirements for bodies operating
certification of persons.
 ● ISO/IEC 17024, Conformity assessment - General requirements for bodies
operating certification of persons. This international standard was developed
with the objective of achieving and promoting a globally accepted benchmark for
organizations operating certification of persons.

● ISO/IEC 17011, Conformity assessment - General requirements for

accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies. This international
standard specifies the general requirements for accreditation bodies. ANSI, the
U.S. accreditation body that has accredited ASNT, is accredited under ISO 17011
and is a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), the world
association of Conformity Assessment Accreditation Bodies in the fields of
management systems, products, services, personnel and other similar programs of
conformity assessment.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION (CEN)

The European Committee for Standardization is a business facilitator in Europe,
removing trade barriers for European industry and consumers. Its mission is to foster
the European economy in global trading, the welfare of European citizens and the
environment. CEN is a major provider of European Standards and technical
specifications. It is the only recognized European organization according to Directive
98/34/EC for the planning, drafting and adoption of European Standards in all areas of
economic activity with the exception of electro-technology and telecommunication.
CEN’s 31 National Members work together to develop voluntary European Standards
(ENs).
Standards (Norms) developed by CEN are considered “harmonized standards” that are
required to be accepted by all member nations in the European Union. The following
two ENs are NDT certification standards:

● EN 4179, Aerospace series - Qualification and approval of personnel for

non-destructive testing. This employer-based certification standard is the
 European version of NAS 410,

● EN 473, Non-destructive testing - Qualification and certification of NDT

personnel - General principles. This European Standard established principles
for the third-party (“central”) qualification and certification of personnel who
perform industrial non-destructive testing (NDT) by an accredited third-party
certification body. Under EN 473, certification bodies had to administer
procedures for certification according to the requirements of EN 473 and must
fulfill the requirements of EN ISO/IEC 17024.

● EN ISO 9712, which was approved in June 2012, replaced EN 473 as the
European harmonized standard (Norm) for NDT central certification effective 1
January 2012. EN ISO 9712 permits the use of current EN 473 certifications until
the certificate holders' next renewal period, at which time they must recertify in
accordance with the EN ISO 9712 requirements. EN ISO 9712 and ISO 9712 are
identical except that EN ISO 9712 has been approved as a harmonized standard
for use under the European Pressure Equipment Directive 97/23/EC.

EUROPEAN PRESSURE EQUIPMENT DIRECTIVE (PED)

The Pressure Equipment Directive (97/23/EC) was adopted by the European Parliament
and the European Council in May 1997 and became obligatory throughout the European
Union (EU) on 29 November 1999. The purpose of the directive (European law) is to
harmonize national laws of the member states of the EU regarding the design,
manufacture, testing and conformity assessment of pressure equipment and assemblies
of pressure equipment. It applies to the design, manufacture and conformity assessment
of pressure equipment and assemblies with a maximum allowable pressure greater than
0.5 bar (~7.25 psi).
REGULATORY AGENCIES
In instances where there are extreme issues involving public safety, the U.S. government
may create regulations above and beyond those provided by industry codes and
standards. Two such examples of this are the control and use of radioactive materials
and the transport of hazardous liquids and gasses. The government agencies responsible
for oversight on these two subjects are the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(USNRC) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), respectively.
The regulations for both of these organizations can be found in the Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR). There are 50 “Titles” in the CFR, with the USNRC regulations
being under Title 10, Energy, and the USDOT regulations being under Title 49,
Transportation.
The USNRC portion of Title 10 is Parts 1-50. As a minimum, radiographers should be
familiar with the following parts:

● Title 10, Part 34 (10CFR34): Licenses for industrial radiography and

radiation safety requirements for industrial radiographic operations;

● 10CFR20: Standards for protection against radiation; and

● 10CFR21: Reporting of defects and noncompliance.

These NRC regulations apply to radioactive materials only; the NRC does not address
radiation such as X-radiation, which is generated by electromagnetic means.
Electromagnetic radiation is governed by the Suggested State Regulations for Control of
Radiation (SSRCR), which is addressed below.
The USDOT portion of Title 49 is under Parts 186-199, and the hazardous liquids and
gasses Parts are as follows:

● 49CFR192: Transportation of natural and other gas by pipeline: minimum

Federal safety standards; and

● 49CFR195: Transportation of hazardous liquids by pipeline.

These two parts mandate Operator Qualification for “covered tasks,” and NDT is
considered a covered task.
CONFERENCE OF RADIATION CONTROL PROGRAM DIRECTORS
The CRCPD has developed the Suggested State Regulations for Control of Radiation
(SSRCR), and Part E is titled, Radiation Safety Requirements for Industrial
Radiographic Operations. Part E is modeled heavily on 10CFR34 but includes
regulations for the use of electromagnetically generated radiation, or X-rays.
Erosion corrosion
Erosion corrosion is the corrosion of a metal which is caused or accelerated by the
relative motion of the environment and the metal surface. It is characterised by surface
features with a directional pattern which are a direct result of the flowing media.
Erosion corrosion is most prevalent in soft alloys (ie copper, aluminium and lead
alloys). Alloys which form a surface film in a corrosive environment commonly show a
limiting velocity above which corrosion rapidly accelerates. Other factors such as
turbulence, cavitation, impingement or galvanic effects can add to the severity of attack.

Standard test methods

ASTM G-32 method of vibratory cavitation erosion testing.
ASTM G-73 practice for liquid impingement erosion testing.
ASTM G-75 test method for slurry abrasivity by miller number.
ASTM G-76 practice for conducting erosion tests by solid particle impingement
using gas jet.
NACE TM0170 method of conducting controlled velocity laboratory corrosion tests.
NACE TM0286 cooling water test units incorporating heat transfer surfaces.

Evaluation of erosion corrosion

Many specialised tests have been utilised to evaluate erosion corrosion. Typically, the
nature of the attack from erosion corrosion and/or velocity accelerated corrosion can be
vary specific to the geometry and exposure conditions. Therefore, the results of tests
and the test/service conditions must always be carefully examined.

The most commonly utilised methods are spinning cylinder and disk apparatus since
they are relatively easy to set-up and they produce conditions that are easily evaluated.
However, they do not always give conditions that represent those in actual service.
Recently, great use of jet impingement and actual pipe flow cells have been utilised
which can more accurately simulate conditions of turbulent flow and multiphase
environments. These tests should be conducted to produce carefully quantified
conditions of wall shear stress that match those in the intended service.

The wall shear stress is a measure of the mechanical action produced on the surface of
the material by the flowing media and most directly relates to the damage or removal of
normally protective corrosion products and inhibitor films.
Laser-based inspection
Laser shearography
Laser shearography uses an interferometer to detect the out-of-plane derivative of
deformation of the subject due to the non-homogeneous strain field caused by subsurface
flaws. Creating an out-of-plane stress by applying vacuum, vibration or thermal stress,
plays upon the weakest bond of a laminar structure. The combination of correct
stressing and shearography provides a rapid non-destructive evaluation of composites,
honeycombs and sandwich constructions both in production and in service, to qualify
repairs and impact damage. Shearography can map changes in strains to 0.1 microstrain
at video frame rates.

Laser ultrasonics
Defect mapping of contoured parts can be rapidly and easily performed by scanning
laser beams over the surface of the part to be inspected. Two laser beams are used –
one to generate and one to detect ultrasonic waves at the surface of the component.
With this technology, not only is there no need for a couplant, but several other
limitations of conventional ultrasonic testing are overcome. For example, there is no
critical orientation requirement of the optical beams with respect to the inspected
component’s surface. Very complex geometric shapes can thus be inspected and access
is only needed from one side.

The system can be used with many different types of materials, including polymer-
matrix composites (graphite, Kevlar and glass epoxy), thermoplastics and painted metal
and non-metallic structures. Honeycomb structures in, for example, aluminium or
Nomex can be inspected with ease.

Digital holography
Complex components ranging from aero engine turbine blades and felt metal engine
seals, through to plasma-coated artificial hip and knee joints, are regularly inspected
worldwide by digital holography, which provides a real-time inspection that is clean,
remote and full field. The systems utilise high-frequency vibration to highlight disbonds
or irregular internal structure.

Strain mapping
A significant advance has been made in laser strain measurement in that in-plane,
calibrated, linear strain fields can be measured. This significant breakthrough allows
engineers to monitor strain concentrations visually instead of calculating stress by finite
element modelling. As strain is the material’s reaction to stress, the detection of high
strain areas can be used to prevent cracks from forming.

Production equipment and applications

Production shearography equipment has revolved around vacuum test chambers. High-
definition shearography systems are able to discern single honeycomb cell failures in a
metre-square panel in seconds. These chambers are also used for attenuation where
acoustic stressing is used as in ventilated honeycombs for spacecraft. Production
shearography systems are configured for numerous applications, ranging from business
jet fuselage assemblies to helicopter blades, flaps, honeycomb panels and missile
fuselages. Incorporation of shearography into production is proving to reduce inspection
time drastically, with 100% coverage and digitally stored images.

On-site equipment and applications

On-site shearography and strain mapping, as in aerospace applications, obviates
teardown for C-scans (see Ultrasonics). By vacuum stressing the skin of the repair,
unbonded or weakened areas as well as far-side honeycomb debonds will be detected.
Repairs in composite honeycomb and solid laminates are also easily evaluated with
vacuum loading shearography, as is the ability to distinguish dents (crushed core) in
aluminium honeycomb from true unbonds. Vacuum stressing has also found an
application in the inspection of the AWACs rotordome, where other techniques have
proved unsuccessful in finding defects in the complex composite structure.

Marine applications
Advanced composite constructions such as RNLI Lifeboats are built of FRP with PVC
closed cell, foam cores, often 100 mm thick. The laying up of a 17 m hull induces
unbonded areas and air pockets even under the most stringent quality regimes. The rapid
scanning provided by the portable vacuum hood has the ability to find defects at both the
skin to core and intercore bondlines. Using this technique, disbonds and areas of
unhardened adhesive have been detected 60 mm below the surface.

The Benefits of Laser-Based Inspection

Lasers have been used in the welding industry for over 30 years for seam-tracking
while welding, for inspection of weld surface quality, and for corrosion detection on
existing structures. Today’s laser sensors are faster, have more resolution, and are
smarter than ever. Weld inspection using lasers is not new, but doing it 75 meters inside
a pipe or streaming inspection data wirelessly is new. As laser technology has
improved, more industries such as oil & gas are beginning to require laser inspection as
part of their specifications. This non-contact method can help catch an unacceptable
condition before it becomes too late to remedy the weld.

Overview
Laser-based vision incorporates optical position finding to measure a surface in 3D. By
scanning a laser line across a surface, measurements of the distance to the surface are
accumulated, creating a contour map. This map can then be used to measure surface
features such as weld bead height, mismatch, undercut, or cracks that are even a few
mils in size. All of this technology can now be found in a single, smart package, but it
wasn’t that way until recently. When the oil & gas industry first began using lasers for
inspecting welds and corrosion on transmission pipeline surfaces, lasers were custom
optical systems, not designed to operate outside a lab environment. These lasers had
low measurement resolution and slow communication speeds, and required processing
had to be completed using a computer with special processing cards. Furthermore, there
were few laser sensor suppliers around and even fewer that provided sensors suitable
for a welding environment. So what has changed in the past two decades? Everything.

Smart lasers include their own processors now, so you do not need to connect to a
computer. Blue lasers can measure glowing steel surfaces because their wavelength is
unaffected by the irradiance of steel at certain temperatures. It is possible to measure
underwater now as well, and the sensor hardware is commercially available. There are
several laser sensor manufacturers now and each one has certain advantages and
disadvantages. Common among all their products though are faster measurements,
higher resolution, and smaller price tags than previous options.

Early laser line sensors used analog cameras, which limited the capture rate to 30 HZ
generally, or double that if you used a few tricks like binning or processing every other
line. Now, digital or smart cameras rule with Ethernet communication protocols and
ever-increasing resolution. Lasers are more and more affordable as new manufacturers
enter the market and veteran manufacturers continue to update their product offerings.
Basic Principles of Liquid Penetrant Inspection
Liquid penetrant inspection (LPI), also known as dye penetrant inspection (DPI) or
penetrant testing (PT), was first developed in the early 1940s to detect flaws on the
surface of materials. Although there are more options in the way the test is performed,
the basic principles have not changed over the years.
Liquid penetrant inspection is a nondestructive test method which does not harm the
samples or parts being inspected. The test is very effective in detecting porosity, cracks,
fractures, laps, seams and other flaws that are open to the surface of the test piece and
may be caused by fatigue, impact, quenching, machining, grinding, forging, bursts,
shrinkage or overload. As a result, it is often used on lots of machined parts, as well as
weldments, manufactured products, castings, forgings and other items that will be
placed into service. Liquid penetrant inspection can be used successfully on nonporous
and fairly smooth materials such as metals, glass, plastics and fired ceramics.

This test is named for the liquid, called penetrant, that is applied to the sample during
testing in order to make any surface flaws more visible. A variety of penetrant materials
are available and selection is often based on the required sensitivity level of the test,
equipment available at the test site to conduct the test and other factors:
· The penetrant comes in two types of liquids-visible dye (colored red) and
fluorescent dye (colored green-yellow).
· Fluorescent penetrants are also classified by sensitivity levels ranging from
one through four, with four being the most sensitive for detecting the finest
flaws.
· Penetrants can be washable with water, removable with a solvent or require
treatment with an emulsifier that is lipophilic (oil-based) or hydrophilic
(water-based).

The Process
The testing process can be broken down into the following distinct steps:
1. Pre-cleaning
2. Penetrant application
3. Penetrant dwell time
4. Penetrant removal
5. Developer application
6. Developer dwell time
7. Inspection
8. Post-cleaning
· Pre-cleaning. The very first step is a thorough surface cleaning to be sure the
test piece is free of oil, grease, water, heat-treat scale, paint, plating and other
contaminants that may prevent liquid penetrant from entering flaws. A solvent
is often used for this step, but the test sample may require steam, vapor,
chemical or ultrasonic cleaning. Parts that have been machined, sanded or grit-
blasted may require etching to remove material that could be block the opening
of the flaw and prevent the penetrant from entering.
· Penetrant application. Both the visible and fluorescent dye penetrants can
be applied to the test sample by spraying, brushing or immersing the part in a
penetrant bath. The choice of application is usually a matter of preference, but
can be influenced by the size and shape of the test piece, the equipment
available for conducting the test or the requirements of the test specification(s)
applicable to the samples.
· Penetrant dwell time. The liquid penetrant is left on the surface for a
sufficient time to allow the liquid to seep into any surface openings or defects.
The total time that this liquid is in contact with the surface of the sample is
called the penetrant dwell time.
Dwell time varies for different types of penetrants and is generally dictated by the
test specifications called out for the testing. The surface finish, temperature
and type of the material also will affect dwell requirement.
 · Penetrant removal. After the dwell time has elapsed, the excess liquid
penetrant is carefully removed from the surface to avoid removing any of the
captured penetrant from the flaw or defect. When working with a visible dye,
excess penetrant is usually removed with a solvent (solvent-removable).
Excess fluorescent dye may be water-washable and rinsed with water or
emulsifiable-post and first treated with an emulsifier before rinsing. When
using the water-washable or post-emulsifiable methods, the part is placed in a
low-temperature oven and allowed time to dry before applying the developer.
· Developer application. A thin layer of developer is applied to the part to
assist in drawing penetrant trapped in flaws back to the surface where it will
be visible as indications. Developers may be applied by dusting with a dry
powder or spraying a wet developer. The resulting indications are larger than
the actual flaw and have a high level of contrast between the penetrant and
developer, making them more visible to aid in inspection.
· Developer dwell time. The developer remains on the sample piece for the
required amount of time stated in the test specification to allow indications to
develop prior to inspection.
· Inspection. The inspection process is performed by trained and certified
inspectors using a visual examination. When working with fluorescent
penetrants, indications must be viewed under darkened conditions with a high-
intensity UV lamp or black light. Testing with a visible dye requires sufficient
white light. The sample will be accepted or rejected based on the
specification or acceptance criteria followed for the order. The inspector also
will attempt to determine the origin of the discontinuity.
· Post-cleaning. The final step in the process is to thoroughly clean the surface
of the sample to remove any penetrant testing residues.

Inspector Qualifications
The American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) has set training
recommendations and developed examinations to certify Level I, II and III inspectors to
perform liquid penetrant inspection for various requirements and industries such as
military and nuclear. A national aerospace standard specifies the requirements for the
certification and qualification of LPI personnel for aerospace applications. In selecting
a testing laboratory, it is important to verify that inspectors are qualified and certified in
accordance with the applicable standard and that the laboratory has any required
customer or end-user approvals.
Advantages and Limitations
Liquid penetrant inspection is a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive means of surface
inspection. Large quantities of parts or materials can be inspected quickly. Parts of
almost any shape and size can be inspected, although the capacity of equipment and the
facility used for testing can create limitations. This type of testing can be performed on
most materials that are not extremely rough or porous. This process is nondestructive so
the test samples are not damaged during testing. LPI is highly sensitive to small surface
discontinuities. Indications are produced directly on the surface of the part and provide
a visual representation of the flaw.

One of the major limitations of a penetrant inspection is that flaws must be open to the
surface. Also, surface finish and roughness can affect inspection sensitivity. Pre-
cleaning of parts is critical since contaminants can mask defects, and post-cleaning is
required to remove residues.
Tech Tips
· Liquid penetrant inspection can be used successfully on nonporous and fairly
smooth materials such as metals, glass, plastics and fired ceramics.
· In selecting a testing laboratory, it is important to verify that inspectors are
qualified and certified in accordance with the applicable standard and that the
laboratory has any required customer or end-user approvals.
· Large quantities of parts or materials can be inspected quickly.
Liquid Penetrant Testing (PT)
Basic Processing Steps of a Liquid Penetrant Inspection
Surface Preparation:
One of the most critical steps of a liquid penetrant inspection is the surface preparation.
The surface must be free of oil, grease, water, or other contaminants that may prevent
penetrant from entering flaws. The sample may also require etching if mechanical
operations such as machining, sanding, or grit blasting have been performed. These and
other mechanical operations can smear metal over the flaw opening and prevent the
penetrant from entering.

Penetrant Application:
Once the surface has been thoroughly cleaned and dried, the penetrant material is
applied by spraying, brushing, or immersing the part in a penetrant bath.

Penetrant Dwell:
The penetrant is left on the surface for a sufficient time to allow as much penetrant as
possible to be drawn from or to seep into a defect. Penetrant dwell time is the total time
that the penetrant is in contact with the part surface. Dwell times are usually
recommended by the penetrant producers or required by the specification being
followed. The times vary depending on the application, penetrant materials used, the
material, the form of the material being inspected, and the type of defect being inspected
for. Minimum dwell times typically range from five to 60 minutes. Generally, there is no
harm in using a longer penetrant dwell time as long as the penetrant is not allowed to
dry. The ideal dwell time is often determined by experimentation and may be very
specific to a particular application.
Excess Penetrant Removal:
This is the most delicate part of the inspection procedure because the excess penetrant
must be removed from the surface of the sample while removing as little penetrant as
possible from defects. Depending on the penetrant system used, this step may involve
cleaning with a solvent, direct rinsing with water, or first treating the part with an

emulsifier and then rinsing with water.

Developer Application:
A thin layer of developer is then applied to the sample to draw penetrant trapped in
flaws back to the surface where it will be visible. Developers come in a variety of
forms that may be applied by dusting (dry powdered), dipping, or spraying (wet
developers).

Indication Development:
The developer is allowed to stand on the part surface for a period of time sufficient to
permit the extraction of the trapped penetrant out of any surface flaws. This
development time is usually a minimum of 10 minutes. Significantly longer times may
be necessary for tight cracks.

Inspection:
Inspection is then performed under appropriate lighting to detect indications from any
flaws which may be present.

Clean Surface:
The final step in the process is to thoroughly clean the part surface to remove the
developer from the parts that were found to be acceptable.

Common Uses of Liquid Penetrant Inspection

Liquid penetrant inspection (LPI) is one of the most widely used nondestructive
evaluation (NDE) methods. Its popularity can be attributed to two main factors: its
relative ease of use and its flexibility. LPI can be used to inspect almost any material
provided that its surface is not extremely rough or porous. Materials that are commonly
inspected using LPI include the following:
● Metals (aluminum, copper, steel, titanium, etc.)
● Glass
● Many ceramic materials

● Rubber
● Plastics
LPI offers flexibility in performing inspections because it can be applied in a large
variety of applications ranging from automotive spark plugs to critical aircraft
components. Penetrant materials can be applied with a spray can or a cotton swab to
inspect for flaws known to occur in a specific area or it can be applied by dipping or
spraying to quickly inspect large areas. In the image above, visible dye penetrant is
being locally applied to a highly loaded connecting point to check for fatigue cracking.

Penetrant inspection systems have been developed to inspect some very large
components. In the image shown right, DC-10 banjo fittings are being moved into a
penetrant inspection system at what used to be the Douglas Aircraft Company's Long
Beach, California facility. These large machined aluminum forgings are used to support
the number two engine in the tail of a DC-10 aircraft.
Liquid penetrant inspection can only be used to inspect for flaws that break the surface
of the sample. Some of these flaws are listed below:
● Fatigue cracks
● Quench cracks

● Grinding cracks
● Overload and impact fractures
● Porosity
● Laps
● Seams
● Pin holes in welds
● Lack of fusion or braising along the edge of the bond line
As mentioned above, one of the major limitations of a penetrant inspection is that flaws
must be open to the surface.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Penetrant Testing

Like all nondestructive inspection methods, liquid penetrant inspection has both
advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantages and disadvantages when
compared to other NDE methods are summarized below.
Primary Advantages
● The method has high sensitivity to small surface discontinuities.
● The method has few material limitations, i.e. metallic and nonmetallic,
magnetic and nonmagnetic, and conductive and nonconductive materials may be
inspected.
● Large areas and large volumes of parts/materials can be inspected rapidly
and at low cost.
● Parts with complex geometric shapes are routinely inspected.

● Indications are produced directly on the surface of the part and constitute a
visual representation of the flaw.
● Aerosol spray cans make penetrant materials very portable.
● Penetrant materials and associated equipment are relatively inexpensive.

Primary Disadvantages
● Only surface breaking defects can be detected.
● Only materials with a relatively nonporous surface can be inspected.

● Precleaning is critical since contaminants can mask defects.

● Metal smearing from machining, grinding, and grit or vaporblasting must be

removed prior to LPI.
● The inspector must have direct access to the surface being inspected.
● Surface finish and roughness can affect inspection sensitivity.
● Multiple process operations must be performed and controlled.
 ● Post cleaning of acceptable parts or materials is required.
● Chemical handling and proper disposal is required.
Penetrant Testing Materials
The penetrant materials used today are much more sophisticated than the kerosene and
whiting first used by railroad inspectors near the turn of the 20th century. Today's
penetrants are carefully formulated to produce the level of sensitivity desired by the
inspector. To perform well, a penetrant must possess a number of important
characteristics. A penetrant must:
● spread easily over the surface of the material being inspected to provide
complete and even coverage.
● be drawn into surface breaking defects by capillary action.

● remain in the defect but remove easily from the surface of the part.
● remain fluid so it can be drawn back to the surface of the part through the
drying and developing steps.
● be highly visible or fluoresce brightly to produce easy to see indications.
● not be harmful to the material being tested or the inspector.

All penetrant materials do not perform the same and are not designed to perform the
same. Penetrant manufactures have developed different formulations to address a
variety of inspection applications.
Some applications call for the detection of the smallest defects possible and have
smooth surfaces where the penetrant is easy to remove. In other applications, the
rejectable defect size may be larger and a penetrant formulated to find larger flaws can
be used. The penetrants that are used to detect the smallest defect will also produce the
largest amount of irrelevant indications.
Penetrant materials are classified in the various industry and government specifications
by their physical characteristics and their performance. Aerospace Material
Specification (AMS) 2644, Inspection Material, Penetrant, is now the primary
specification used in the USA to control penetrant materials.
Historically, Military Standard 25135, Inspection Materials, Penetrants, has been the
primary document for specifying penetrants but this document is slowly being phased
out and replaced by AMS 2644. Other specifications such as ASTM 1417, Standard
Practice for Liquid Penetrant Examinations, may also contain information on the
classification of penetrant materials but they are generally referred back to MIL-I-
25135 or AMS 2644.
Penetrant materials come in two basic types. These types are listed below:
● Type 1 - Fluorescent Penetrants

● Type 2 - Visible Penetrants

Fluorescent penetrants contain a dye or several dyes that fluoresce when exposed to
ultraviolet radiation. Visible penetrants contain a red dye that provides high contrast
against the white developer background. Fluorescent penetrant systems are more
sensitive than visible penetrant systems because the eye is drawn to the glow of the
fluorescing indication.
However, visible penetrants do not require a darkened area and an ultraviolet light in
order to make an inspection. Visible penetrants are also less vulnerable to
contamination from things such as cleaning fluid that can significantly reduce the
strength of a fluorescent indication.
Penetrants are then classified by the method used to remove the excess penetrant from
the part. The four methods are listed below:
● Method A - Water Washable
● Method B - Post-Emulsifiable, Lipophilic
● Method C - Solvent Removable
● Method D - Post-Emulsifiable, Hydrophilic
Water washable (Method A) penetrants can be removed from the part by rinsing with
water alone. These penetrants contain an emulsifying agent (detergent) that makes it
possible to wash the penetrant from the part surface with water alone. Water washable
penetrants are sometimes referred to as self-emulsifying systems. Post-emulsifiable
penetrants come in two varieties, lipophilic and hydrophilic.
In post-emulsifiers, lipophilic systems (Method B), the penetrant is oil soluble and
interacts with the oil-based emulsifier to make removal possible. Post-emulsifiable,
hydrophilic systems (Method D), use an emulsifier that is a water soluble detergent
which lifts the excess penetrant from the surface of the part with a water wash.
Solvent removable penetrants require the use of a solvent to remove the penetrant from
the [Link] are then classified based on the strength or detectability of the
indication that is produced for a number of very small and tight fatigue cracks. The five
sensitivity levels are shown below:
● Level ½ - Ultra Low Sensitivity
● Level 1 - Low Sensitivity
● Level 2 - Medium Sensitivity
● Level 3 - High Sensitivity
● Level 4 - Ultra-High Sensitivity
The major US government and industry specifications currently rely on the US Air
Force Materials Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to classify penetrants
into one of the five sensitivity levels.
This procedure uses titanium and Inconel specimens with small surface cracks produced
in low cycle fatigue bending to classify penetrant systems. The brightness of the
indication produced is measured using a photometer. The sensitivity levels and the test
procedure used can be found in Military Specification MIL-I-25135 and Aerospace
Material Specification 2644, Penetrant Inspection Materials.
An interesting note about the sensitivity levels is that only four levels were originally
planned. However, when some penetrants were judged to have sensitivities
significantly less than most others in the level 1 category, the ½ level was created. An
excellent historical summary of the development of test specimens for evaluating the
performance of penetrant materials can be found in the following reference.
Penetrants

The industry and military specifications that control penetrant materials and their use,
all stipulate certain physical properties of the penetrant materials that must be met.
Some of these requirements address the safe use of the materials, such as toxicity, flash
point, and corrosiveness, and other requirements address storage and contamination
issues. Still others delineate properties that are thought to be primarily responsible for
the performance or sensitivity of the penetrants. The properties of penetrant materials
that are controlled by AMS 2644 and MIL-I-25135E include flash point, surface wetting
capability, viscosity, color, brightness, ultraviolet stability, thermal stability, water
tolerance, and removability.
Emulsifiers
When removal of the penetrant from a defect due to over-washing of the part is a
concern, a post-emulsifiable penetrant system can be used. Post-emulsifiable penetrants
require a separate emulsifier to break the penetrant down and make it water-washable.
Most penetrant inspection specifications classify penetrant systems into four methods of
excess penetrant removal. These are listed below:
1. Method A: Water-Washable
2. Method B: Post-Emulsifiable, Lipophilic
3. Method C: Solvent Removable
4. Method D: Post-Emulsifiable, Hydrophilic
Method C relies on a solvent cleaner to remove the penetrant from the part being
inspected. Method A has emulsifiers built into the penetrant liquid that makes it
possible to remove the excess penetrant with a simple water wash. Method B and D
penetrants require an additional processing step where a separate emulsification agent
is applied to make the excess penetrant more removable with a water wash.
Lipophilic emulsification systems are oil-based materials that are supplied in ready-to-
use form. Hydrophilic systems are water-based and supplied as a concentrate that must
be diluted with water prior to use .
Lipophilic emulsifiers (Method B) were introduced in the late 1950's and work with
both a chemical and mechanical action. After the emulsifier has coated the surface of the
object, mechanical action starts to remove some of the excess penetrant as the mixture
drains from the part. During the emulsification time, the emulsifier diffuses into the
remaining penetrant and the resulting mixture is easily removed with a water spray.
Hydrophilic emulsifiers (Method D) also remove the excess penetrant with mechanical
and chemical action but the action is different because no diffusion takes place.
Hydrophilic emulsifiers are basically detergents that contain solvents and surfactants.
The hydrophilic emulsifier breaks up the penetrant into small quantities and prevents
these pieces from recombining or reattaching to the surface of the part. The mechanical
action of the rinse water removes the displaced penetrant from the part and causes fresh
remover to contact and lift newly exposed penetrant from the surface.
The hydrophilic post-emulsifiable method (Method D) was introduced in the mid
1970's. Since it is more sensitive than the lipophilic post emulsifiable method it has
made the later method virtually obsolete.
The major advantage of hydrophilic emulsifiers is that they are less sensitive to
variation in the contact and removal time. While emulsification time should be
controlled as closely as possible, a variation of one minute or more in the contact time
will have little effect on flaw detectability when a hydrophilic emulsifier is used.
However, a variation of as little as 15 to 30 seconds can have a significant effect when
a lipophilic system is used.
Developers
The role of the developer is to pull the trapped penetrant material out of defects and
spread it out on the surface of the part so it can be seen by an inspector. The fine
developer particles both reflect and refract the incident ultraviolet light, allowing more
of it to interact with the penetrant, causing more efficient fluorescence. The developer
also allows more light to be emitted through the same mechanism. This is why
indications are brighter than the penetrant itself under UV light. Another function that
some developers perform is to create a white background so there is a greater degree of
contrast between the indication and the surrounding background.
Developer Forms
The AMS 2644 and Mil-I-25135 classify developers into six standard forms. These
forms are listed below:
1. Form a - Dry Powder
2. Form b - Water Soluble

3. Form c - Water Suspendable

 4. Form d - Nonaqueous Type 1 Fluorescent (Solvent Based)
5. Form e - Nonaqueous Type 2 Visible Dye (Solvent Based)
6. Form f - Special Applications
The developer classifications are based on the method that the developer is applied.
The developer can be applied as a dry powder, or dissolved or suspended in a liquid
carrier. Each of the developer forms has advantages and disadvantages.
Dry Powder

Dry powder developer is generally considered to be the least sensitive but it is

inexpensive to use and easy to apply. Dry developers are white, fluffy powders that can
be applied to a thoroughly dry surface in a number of ways. The developer can be
applied by dipping parts in a container of developer, or by using a puffer to dust parts
with the developer. Parts can also be placed in a dust cabinet where the developer is
blown around and allowed to settle on the part.
Electrostatic powder spray guns are also available to apply the developer. The goal is
to allow the developer to come in contact with the whole inspection area.
Unless the part is electrostatically charged, the powder will only adhere to areas where
trapped penetrant has wet the surface of the part. The penetrant will try to wet the
surface of the penetrant particle and fill the voids between the particles, which brings
more penetrant to the surface of the part where it can be seen.
Since dry powder developers only stick to the area where penetrant is present, the dry
developer does not provide a uniform white background as the other forms of
developers do. Having a uniform light background is very important for a visible
inspection to be effective and since dry developers do not provide one, they are seldom
used for visible inspections. When a dry developer is used, indications tend to stay
bright and sharp since the penetrant has a limited amount of room to spread.
Water Soluble

As the name implies, water soluble developers consist of a group of chemicals that are
dissolved in water and form a developer layer when the water is evaporated away. The
best method for applying water soluble developers is by spraying it on the part. The
part can be wet or dry. Dipping, pouring, or brushing the solution on to the surface is
sometimes used but these methods are less desirable. Aqueous developers contain
wetting agents that cause the solution to function much like dilute hydrophilic emulsifier
and can lead to additional removal of entrapped penetrant. Drying is achieved by
placing the wet but well drained part in a recirculating, warm air dryer with the
temperature held between 70 and 75°F. If the parts are not dried quickly, the indications
will will be blurred and indistinct. Properly developed parts will have an even, pale
white coating over the entire surface.
Water Suspendable
Water suspendable developers consist of insoluble developer particles suspended in
water. Water suspendable developers require frequent stirring or agitation to keep the
particles from settling out of suspension.
Water suspendable developers are applied to parts in the same manner as water soluble
developers. Parts coated with a water suspendable developer must be forced dried just
as parts coated with a water soluble developer are forced dried. The surface of a part
coated with a water suspendable developer will have a slightly translucent white
coating.
Nonaqueous
Nonaqueous developers suspend the developer in a volatile solvent and are typically
applied with a spray gun. Nonaqueous developers are commonly distributed in aerosol
spray cans for portability. The solvent tends to pull penetrant from the indications by
solvent action. Since the solvent is highly volatile, forced drying is not required. A
nonaqueous developer should be applied to a thoroughly dried part to form a slightly
translucent white coating.
Special Applications
Plastic or lacquer developers are special developers that are primarily used when a
permanent record of the inspection is required.
Preparation of Part

One of the most critical steps in the penetrant inspection process is preparing the part
for inspection. All coatings, such as paints, varnishes, plating, and heavy oxides must be
removed to ensure that defects are open to the surface of the part. If the parts have been
machined, sanded, or blasted prior to the penetrant inspection, it is possible that a thin
layer of metal may have smeared across the surface and closed off defects. It is even
possible for metal smearing to occur as a result of cleaning operations such as grit or
vapor blasting. This layer of metal smearing must be removed before inspection.
Contaminants
Coatings, such as paint, are much more elastic than metal and will not fracture even
though a large defect may be present just below the coating. The part must be thoroughly
cleaned as surface contaminates can prevent the penetrant from entering a defect.
Surface contaminants can also lead to a higher level of background noise since the
excess penetrant may be more difficult to remove.
Common coatings and contaminates that must be removed include: paint, dirt, flux,
scale, varnish, oil, etchant, smut, plating, grease, oxide, wax, decals, machining fluid,
rust, and residue from previous penetrant inspections.
Some of these contaminants would obviously prevent penetrant from entering defects, so
it is clear they must be removed. However, the impact of other contaminants such as the
residue from previous penetrant inspections is less clear, but they can have a disastrous
effect on the inspection. Take the link below to review some of the research that has
been done to evaluate the effects of contaminants on LPI sensitivity.

A good cleaning procedure will remove all contamination from the part and not leave
any residue that may interfere with the inspection process. It has been found that some
alkaline cleaners can be detrimental to the penetrant inspection process if they have
silicates in concentrations above 0.5 percent. Sodium metasilicate, sodium silicate, and
related compounds can adhere to the surface of parts and form a coating that prevents
penetrant entry into cracks. Researchers in Russia have also found that some domestic
soaps and commercial detergents can clog flaw cavities and reduce the wettability of
the metal surface, thus reducing the sensitivity of the penetrant. Conrad and Caudill
found that media from plastic media blasting was partially responsible for loss of LPI
indication strength. Microphotographs of cracks after plastic media blasting showed
media entrapment in addition to metal smearing.
It is very important that the material being inspected has not been smeared across its
own surface during machining or cleaning operations. It is well recognized that
machining, honing, lapping, hand sanding, hand scraping, grit blasting, tumble deburring,
and peening operations can cause some materials to smear. It is perhaps less recognized
that some cleaning operations, such as steam cleaning, can also cause metal smearing in
the softer materials. Take the link below to learn more about metal smearing and its
affects on LPI
Selection of a Penetrant Technique

The selection of a liquid penetrant system is not a straightforward task. There are
variety of penetrant systems and developer types that are available for use, and one set
of penetrant materials will not work for all applications. Many factors must be
considered when selecting the penetrant materials for a particular application. These
factors include the sensitivity required, materials cost, number of parts, size of area
requiring inspection, and portability.
When sensitivity is the primary consideration for choosing a penetrant system, the first
decision that must be made is whether to use fluorescent penetrant or visible dye
penetrant. Fluorescent penetrants are generally more capable of producing a detectable
indication from a small defect. Also, the human eye is more sensitive to a light
indication on a dark background and the eye is naturally drawn to a fluorescent
indication.
The graph below presents a series of curves that show the contrast ratio required for a
spot of a certain diameter to be seen. The ordinate is the spot diameter, which was
viewed from one foot. The abscissa is the contrast ratio between the spot brightness and
the background brightness. To the left of the contrast ratio of one, the spot is darker than
the background (representative of visible dye penetrant testing); and to the right of one,
the spot is brighter than the background (representative of fluorescent penetrant
inspection). Each of the three curves right or left of the contrast ratio of one are for
different background brightness (in foot-Lamberts), but simply consider the general
trend of each group of curves right or left of the contrast ratio of one. The curves show
that for indication larger than 0.076 mm (0.003 inch) in diameter, it does not really
matter if it is a dark spot on a light background or a light spot on a dark background.
However, when a dark indication on a light background is further reduced in size, it is
no longer detectable even though contrast is increased. Furthermore, with a light
indication on a dark background, indications down to 0.003 mm (0.0001 inch) were
detectable when the contrast between the flaw and the background was high.
From this data, it can be seen why a fluorescent penetrant offers an advantage over a
visible penetrant for finding very small defects. Data presented by De Graaf and De
Rijk supports this statement. They inspected "identical" fatigue cracked specimens using
a red dye penetrant and a fluorescent dye penetrant. The fluorescent penetrant found 60
defects while the visible dye was only able to find 39 of the defects.
Ref: De Graaf, E. and De Rijk, P., Comparison Between Reliability, Sensitivity, and
Accuracy of Nondestructive Inspection Methods, 13th Symposium on Nondestructive
Evaluation Proceedings, San Antonio, TX, published by NTIAC, Southwest Research
Institute, San Antonio, TX, April 1981, pp. 311-322.

Under certain conditions, the visible penetrant may be a better choice. When fairly large
defects are the subject of the inspection, a high sensitivity system may not be warranted
and may result in a large number of irrelevant indications. Visible dye penetrants have
also been found to give better results when surface roughness is high or when flaws are
located in areas such as weldments.
Since visible dye penetrants do not require a darkened area for the use of an ultraviolet
light, visible systems are more easy to use in the field. Solvent removable penetrants,
when properly applied, can have the highest sensitivity and are very convenient to use.
However, they are usually not practical for large area inspection or in high-volume
production settings.
Another consideration in the selection of a penetrant system is whether water washable,
post-emulsifiable or solvent removable penetrants will be used. Post-emulsifiable
systems are designed to reduce the possibility of over-washing, which is one of the
factors known to reduce sensitivity. However, these systems add another step, and thus
cost, to the inspection process.
Penetrants are evaluated by the US Air Force according to the requirements in MIL-I-
25135 and each penetrant system is classified into one of five sensitivity levels. This
procedure uses titanium and Inconel specimens with small surface cracks produced in
low cycle fatigue bending to classify penetrant systems.
The brightness of the indications produced after processing a set of specimens with a
particular penetrant system is measured using a photometer. A procedure for producing
and evaluating the penetrant qualification specimens was reported on by Moore and
Larson at the 1997 ASNT Fall Conference. Most commercially available penetrant
materials are listed in the Qualified Products List of MIL-I-25135 according to their
type, method and sensitivity level.
Visible dye and dual-purpose penetrants are not classified into sensitivity levels as
fluorescent penetrants are. The sensitivity of a visible dye penetrant is regarded as level
1 and largely dependent on obtaining good contrast between the indication and the
background.

Penetrant Application and Dwell Time

The penetrant material can be applied in a number of different ways, including spraying,
brushing, or immersing the parts in a penetrant bath. The method of penetrant
application has little effect on the inspection sensitivity but an electrostatic spraying
method is reported to produce slightly better results than other methods. Once the part is
covered in penetrant it must be allowed to dwell so the penetrant has time to enter any
defect present.
There are basically two dwell mode options, immersion-dwell (keeping the part
immersed

in the penetrant during the dwell period) and drain-dwell (letting the part drain during
the dwell period). Prior to a study by Sherwin, the immersion-dwell mode was
generally considered to be more sensitive but recognized to be less economical because
more penetrant was washed away and emulsifiers were contaminated more rapidly. The
reasoning for thinking this method was more sensitive was that the penetrant was more
migratory and more likely to fill flaws when kept completely fluid and not allowed to
lose volatile constituents by evaporation. However, Sherwin showed that if the
specimens are allowed to drain-dwell, the sensitivity is higher because the evaporation
increases the dyestuff concentration of the penetrant on the specimen. As pointed-out in
the section on penetrant materials, sensitivity increases as the dyestuff concentration
increases. Sherwin also cautions that the samples being inspected should be placed
outside the penetrant tank wall so that vapors from the tank do not accumulate and dilute
the dyestuff concentration of the penetrant on the specimen.
Penetrant Dwell Time
Penetrant dwell time is the total time that the penetrant is in contact with the part
surface. The dwell time is important because it allows the penetrant the time necessary
to seep or be drawn into a defect. Dwell times are usually recommended by the
penetrant producers or required by the specification being followed. The time required
to fill a flaw depends on a number of variables which include the following:
● The surface tension of the penetrant.

● The contact angle of the penetrant.

● The dynamic shear viscosity of the penetrant, which can vary with the
diameter of the capillary. The viscosity of a penetrant in microcapillary flaws is
higher than its viscosity in bulk, which slows the infiltration of the tight flaws.
● The atmospheric pressure at the flaw opening.
● The capillary pressure at the flaw opening.

● The pressure of the gas trapped in the flaw by the penetrant.

● The radius of the flaw or the distance between the flaw walls.

● The density or specific gravity of the penetrant.

● Microstructural properties of the penetrant.
The ideal dwell time is often determined by experimentation and is often very specific
to a particular application. For example, AMS 2647A requires that the dwell time for
all aircraft and engine parts be at least 20 minutes, while ASTM E1209 only requires a
five minute dwell time for parts made of titanium and other heat resistant alloys.
Generally, there is no harm in using a longer penetrant dwell time as long as the
penetrant is not allowed to dry.
The following tables summarize the dwell time requirements of several commonly used
specifications. The information provided below is intended for general reference and
no guarantee is made about its correctness. Please consult the specifications for the
actual dwell time requirements.
Some Research Results on Dwell Time
An interesting point that Deutsch makes about dwell time is that if the elliptical flaw has
a length to width ratio of 100, it will take the penetrant nearly ten times longer to fill
than it will a cylindrical flaw with the same volume.

Lord and Holloway looked for the optimum penetrant dwell time required for detecting
several types of defects in titanium. Both a level 2 post-emulsifiable fluorescent
penetrant (Magnaflux ZL-2A penetrant and ZE-3 emulsifier) and a level 2 water
washable penetrant (Tracer-Tech P-133A penetrant) were included in the study. The
effect of the developer was a variable in the study and nonaqueous wet, aqueous wet,
and dry developers were included. Specimens were also processed using no developer.
The specimen defects included stress corrosion cracks, fatigue cracks and porosity. As
expected, the researchers found that the optimal dwell time varied with the type of
defect and developer used. The following table summarizes some of the findings.
Penetrant Removal Process

The penetrant removal procedure must effectively remove the penetrant from the surface
of the part without removing an appreciable amount of entrapped penetrant from the
defect. If the removal process extracts penetrant from the flaw, the flaw indication will
be reduced by a proportional amount. If the penetrant is not effectively removed from
the part surface, the contrast between the indication and the background will be
reduced. As discussed in the Contrast Sensitivity Section, as the contrast increases, so
does visibility of the indication.
Removal Method
Penetrant systems are classified into four methods of excess penetrant removal. These
include the following:
1. Method A: Water-Washable

2. Method B: Post-Emulsifiable, Lipophilic

3. Method C: Solvent Removable

4. Method D: Post-Emulsifiable, Hydrophilic

Method C, Solvent Removable, is used primarily for inspecting small localized areas.
This method requires hand wiping the surface with a cloth moistened with the solvent
remover, and is, therefore, too labor intensive for most production situations. Of the
three production penetrant inspection methods, Method A, Water-Washable, is the most
economical to apply. Water-washable or self-emulsifiable penetrants contain an
emulsifier as an integral part of the formulation. The excess penetrant may be removed
from the object surface with a simple water rinse. These materials have the property of
forming relatively viscous gels upon contact with water, which results in the formation
of gel-like plugs in surface openings. While they are completely soluble in water, given
enough contact time, the plugs offer a brief period of protection against rapid wash
removal. Thus, water-washable penetrant systems provide ease of use and a high level
of sensitivity.
When removal of the penetrant from the defect due to over-washing of the part is a
concern, a post-emulsifiable penetrant system can be used. Post-emulsifiable penetrants
require a separate emulsifier to breakdown the penetrant and make it water washable.
The part is usually immersed in the emulsifier but hydrophilic emulsifiers may also be
sprayed on the object. Spray application is not recommended for lipophilic emulsifiers
because it can result in non-uniform emulsification if not properly applied. Brushing the
emulsifier on to the part is not recommended either because the bristles of the brush may
force emulsifier into discontinuities, causing the entrapped penetrant to be removed.
The emulsifier is allowed sufficient time to react with the penetrant on the surface of the
part but not given time to make its way into defects to react with the trapped penetrant.
The penetrant that has reacted with the emulsifier is easily cleaned away. Controlling
the reaction time is of essential importance when using a post-emulsifiable system. If
the emulsification time is too short, an excessive amount of penetrant will be left on the
surface, leading to high background levels. If the emulsification time is too long, the
emulsifier will react with the penetrant entrapped in discontinuities, making it possible
to deplete the amount needed to form an indication.
The hydrophilic post-emulsifiable method (Method D) is more sensitive than the
lipophilic post-emulsifiable method (Method B). Since these methods are generally
only used when very high sensitivity is needed, the hydrophilic method renders the
lipophilic method virtually obsolete. The major advantage of hydrophilic emulsifiers is
that they are less sensitive to variation in the contact and removal time. While
emulsification time should be controlled as closely as possible, a variation of one
minute or more in the contact time will have little effect on flaw detectability when a
hydrophilic emulsifier is used. On the contrary, a variation of as little as 15 to 30
seconds can have a significant effect when a lipophilic system is used. Using an
emulsifier involves adding a couple of steps to the penetrant process, slightly increases
the cost of an inspection. When using an emulsifier, the penetrant process includes the
following steps (extra steps in bold): 1. pre-clean part, 2. apply penetrant and allow to
dwell, 3. pre-rinse to remove first layer of penetrant, 4. apply hydrophilic emulsifier
and allow contact for specified time, 5. rinse to remove excess penetrant, 6. dry part, 7.
apply developer and allow part to develop, and 8. inspect.
Rinse Method and Time for Water-Washable Penetrants
The method used to rinse the excess penetrant from the object surface and the time of the
rinse should be controlled so as to prevent over-washing. It is generally recommended
that a coarse spray rinse or an air-agitated, immersion wash tank be used. When a spray
is being used, it should be directed at a 45° angle to the part surface so as to not force
water directly into any discontinuities that may be present. The spray or immersion time
should be kept to a minimum through frequent inspections of the remaining background
level.
Hand Wiping of Solvent Removable Penetrants
When a solvent removable penetrant is used, care must also be taken to carefully
remove the penetrant from the part surface while removing as little as possible from the
flaw. The first step in this cleaning procedure is to dry wipe the surface of the part in
one direction using a white, lint-free, cotton rag. One dry pass in one direction is all that
should be used to remove as much penetrant as possible. Next, the surface should be
wiped with one pass in one direction with a rag moistened with cleaner. One dry pass
followed by one damp pass is all that is recommended. Additional wiping may
sometimes be necessary; but keep in mind that with every additional wipe, some of the
entrapped penetrant will be removed and inspection sensitivity will be reduced.
To study the effects of the wiping process, Japanese researchers manufactured a test
specimen out of acrylic plates that allowed them to view the movement of the penetrant
in a narrow cavity. The sample consisted of two pieces of acrylic with two thin sheets
of vinyl clamped between as spaces. The plates were clamped in the corners and all but
one of the edges sealed. The unsealed edge acted as the flaw. The clearance between
the plates varied from 15 microns (0.00059055 inch) at the clamping points to 30
microns (0.0011811 inch) at the midpoint between the clamps. The distance between the
clamping points was believed to be 30 mm (1.18 inch).
Although the size of the flaw represented by this specimen is large, an interesting
observation was made. They found that when the surface of the specimen was wiped
with a dry cloth, penetrant was blotted and removed from the flaw at the corner areas
where the clearance between the plate was the least. When the penetrant at the side
areas was removed, penetrant moved horizontally from the center area to the ends of the
simulated crack where capillary forces are stronger. Therefore, across the crack length,
the penetrant surface has a parabola-like shape where the liquid is at the surface in the
corners but depressed in the center. This shows that each time the cleaning cloth touches
the edge of a crack, penetrant is lost from the defect. This also explains why the
bleedout of an indication is often largest at the corners of cracks.
Use and Selection of a Developer
The use of developer is almost always recommended. One study reported that the output
from a fluorescent penetrant could be multiplied by up to seven times when a suitable
powder developer was used. Another study showed that the use of developer can have a
dramatic effect on the probability of detection (POD) of an inspection. When a Haynes
Alloy 188, flat panel specimen with a low-cycle fatigue crack was inspected without a
developer, a 90 % POD was never reached with crack lengths as long as 19 mm (0.75
inch). The operator detected only 86 of 284 cracks and had 70 false-calls. When a
developer was used, a 90 % POD was reached at 2 mm (0.077 inch), with the inspector
identifying 277 of 311 cracks with no false-calls. However, some authors have reported
that in special situations, the use of a developer may actually reduce sensitivity. These
situations primarily occur when large, well defined defects are being inspected on a
surface that contains many nonrelevantindications that cause excessive bleedout.

Type of Developer Used and Method of Application

Nonaqueous developers are generally recognized as the most sensitive when properly
applied. There is less agreement on the performance of dry and aqueous wet
developers, but the aqueous developers are usually considered more sensitive. Aqueous
wet developers form a finer matrix of particles that is more in contact with the part
surface. However, if the thickness of the coating becomes too great, defects can be
masked. Also, aqueous wet developers can cause leaching and blurring of indications
when used with water-washable penetrants. The relative sensitivities of developers and
application techniques as ranked in Volume II of the Nondestructive Testing Handbook
are shown in the table below. There is general industry agreement with this table, but
some industry experts feel that water suspendable developers are more sensitive than
water-soluble developers.
Sensitivity ranking of developers per the Nondestructive Testing Handbook.
Sensitivity Ranking (highest to lowest) Developer Form Application Technique.

Ranking Developer Form Method of Application

1 Nonaqueous, Wet Spray
2 Solvent Spray
3 Plastic Film Spray
4 Water-Soluble Spray
5 Water-Suspendable Immersion
6 Water-Soluble Immersion
7 Water-Suspendable Dust Cloud
8 Dry (Electrostatic)
9 Dry Fluidized Bed
10 Dry Dust Cloud (Air
Dry Agitation)
Immersion (Dip)
The following table lists the main advantages and disadvantages of the various
developer types.

Developer Advantages Disadvantages

Dry Indications tend to Does not form contrast

remain brighter and background so cannot
more distinct over time be used with visible
Easily to apply systems
 Difficult to assure
entire part surface has
been coated

Soluble Ease of coating entire Coating is translucent

part and provides poor
White coating for good contrast (not
contrast can be recommended for
produced which work visual systems)
well for both visible Indications for water
and fluorescent systems washable systems are
dim and blurred

Suspendable Ease of coating entire Indications weaken and

part become diffused after
Indications are bright time
and sharp
White coating for good
contrast can be
produced which work
well for both visible
and fluorescent systems

Nonaqueous Very portable Difficult to apply

Easy to apply to evenly to all surfaces
readily accessible More difficult to clean
surfaces part after inspection
White coating for good
contrast can be
produced which work
well for both visible
and fluorescent systems
 Indications show-up
rapidly and are well
defined
Provides highest
sensitivity

Process Control of Temperature

The temperature of the penetrant materials and the part being inspected can have an
effect on the results. Temperatures from 27 to 49oC (80 to 120oF) are reported in the
literature to produce optimal results. Many specifications allow testing in the range of 4
to 52oC (40 to 125oF). A tip to remember is that surfaces that can be touched for an
extended period of time without burning the skin are generally below 52oC (125oF).
Since the surface tension of most materials decrease as the temperature increases,
raising the temperature of the penetrant will increase the wetting of the surface and the
capillary forces. Of course, the converse is also true, so lowering the temperature will
have a negative effect on the flow characteristics. Raising the temperature will also
raise the speed of evaporation of penetrants, which can have a positive or negative
effect on sensitivity.
The impact will be positive if the evaporation serves to increase the dye concentration
of the penetrant trapped in a flaw up to the concentration quenching point and not
beyond. Higher temperatures and more rapid evaporation will have a negative effect if
the dye concentration exceeds the concentration quenching point, or the flow
characteristics are changed to the point where the penetrant does not readily flow.
The method of processing a hot part was once commonly employed. Parts were either
heated or processed hot off the production line. In its day, this served to increase
inspection sensitivity by increasing the viscosity of the penetrant. However, the
penetrant materials used today have 1/2 to 1/3 the viscosity of the penetrants on the
market in the 1960's and 1970's. Heating the part prior to inspection is no longer
necessary and no longer recommended.
Quality Control of Penetrant
The quality of a penetrant inspection is highly dependent on the quality of the penetrant
materials used. Only products meeting the requirements of an industry specification,
such as AMS 2644, should be used. Deterioration of new penetrants primarily results
from aging and contamination. Virtually all organic dyes deteriorate over time, resulting
in a loss of color or fluorescent response, but deterioration can be slowed with proper
storage. When possible, keep the materials in a closed container and protect from
freezing and exposure to high heat. Freezing can cause separation to occur and
exposure to high temperature for a long period of time can affect the brightness of the
dyes.
Contamination can occur during storage and use. Of course, open tank systems are much
more susceptible to contamination than are spray systems. Contamination by another
liquid will change the surface tension and contact angle of the solution. Water is the
most common contaminant. Water-washable penetrants have a definite tolerance limit
for water, and above this limit they do not function properly. Cloudiness and viscosity
both increase with increasing water content. In self-emulsifiable penetrants, water
contamination can produce a gel break or emulsion inversion when the water
concentration becomes high enough. The formation of the gel is an important feature
during the washing processes, but must be avoided until that stage in the process. Data
indicates that the water contamination must be significant (greater than 10%) for gel
formation to occur. Most specifications limit water contamination to around 5% to be
conservative. Water does not readily mix with the oily solution of lipophilic post-
emulsifiable systems and it generally settles to the bottom of the tank. However, the
inspection of parts that travel to the bottom of the tank and encounter the water could be
adversely affected.
Most other common contaminates, such as cleaning solvents, oils, acids, caustics and
chromates, must be present in significant quantities to affect the performance of the
penetrant. Organic contaminants can dilute the dye and absorb the ultraviolet radiation
before it reaches the dye, and also change the viscosity. Acids, caustics, and chromates
cause the loss of fluorescence in water-soluble penetrants.
Regular checks must be performed to ensure that the material performance has not
degraded. When the penetrant is first received from the manufacturer, a sample of the
fresh solution should be collected and stored as a standard for future comparison. The
standard specimen should be stored in a sealed, opaque glass or metal container.
Penetrants that are in-use should be compared regularly to the standard specimen to
detect changes in color, odorand consistency. When using fluorescent penetrants, a
brightness comparison per the requirements of ASTM E 1417 is also often required.
This check involves placing a drop of the standard and the in-use penetrants on a piece
of Whatman #4 filter paper and making a side by side comparison of the brightness of
the two spots under UV light.
Additionally, the water content of water washable penetrants must be checked
regularly. Water-based, water washable penetrants are checked with a refractometer.
The rejection criteria is different for different penetrants, so the requirements of the
qualifying specification or the manufacturer's instructions must be consulted. Non-
water-based, water washable penetrants are checked using the procedure specified in
ASTM D95 or ASTM E 1417.
Application of the Penetrant
The application of the penetrant is the step of the process that requires the least amount
of control. As long as the surface being inspected receives a generous coating of
penetrant, it really doesn't matter how the penetrant is applied. Generally, the
application method is an economic or convenience decision.
It is important that the part be thoroughly cleaned and dried. Any contaminates or
moisture on the surface of the part or within a flaw can prevent the penetrant material
from entering the defect. The part should also be cool to the touch. The recommended
range of temperature is 4 to 52oC (39 to 125oF).
Quality Control of Wash Temperature and Pressure
The wash temperature, pressure and time are three parameters that are typically
controlled in penetrant inspection process specification. A coarse spray or an
immersion wash tank with air agitation is often used. When the spray method is used,
the water pressure is usually limited to 276 kN/m2 (40 psi). The temperature range of
the water is usually specified as a wide range (e.g.. 10 to 38oC (50 to 100oF) in AMS
2647A.) A low-pressure, coarse water spray will force less water into flaws to dilute
and/or remove trapped penetrant and weaken the indication. The temperature will have
an effect on the surface tension of the water and warmer water will have more wetting
action than cold water. Warmer water temperatures may also make emulsifiers and
detergent more effective. The wash time should only be as long as necessary to
decrease the background to an acceptable level. Frequent visual checks of the part
should be made to determine when the part has be adequately rinsed.
Summary of Research on Wash Method Variables
Vaerman evaluated the effect that rinse time had on one high sensitivity water-washable
penetrant and two post-emulsifiablepenetrants (one medium and one high sensitivity).
The evaluation was conducted using TESCO panels with numerous cracks ranging in
depth from five to 100 microns deep. A 38% decrease in sensitivity for the water-
washable penetrant was seen when the rinse time was increased from 25 to 60 seconds.
When the rinse times of two post-emulsifiable penetrants were increased from 20 to 60
seconds, a loss in sensitivity was seen in both cases, although much reduced from the
loss seen with the water-washable system. The relative sensitivity loss over the range
of crack depths was 13% for the penetrant with medium sensitivity.
Quality Control of Drying Process
The temperature used to dry parts after the application of an aqueous wet developer or
prior to the application of a dry powder or a nonaqueous wet developer, must be
controlled to prevent "cooking" of the penetrant in the defect. High drying temperature
can affect penetrants in a couple of ways. First, some penetrants can fade at high
temperatures due to dye vaporization or sublimation. Second, high temperatures can
cause the penetrant to dry in the theflaw, preventing it from migrating to the surface to
produce an indication. To prevent harming the penetrant material, drying temperature
should be kept to under 71oC.
The drying should be limited to the minimum length of time necessary to thoroughly dry
the component being inspected.
Quality Control of Developer
The function of the developer is very important in a penetrant inspection. It must draw
out of the discontinuity a sufficient amount of penetrant to form an indication, and it must
spread the penetrant out on the surface to produce a visible indication. In a fluorescent
penetrant inspection, the amount of penetrant brought to the surface must exceed the
dye's thin film threshold of fluorescence, or the indication will not fluoresce.
Additionally, the developer makes fluorescent indications appear brighter than
indications produced with the same amount of dye but without the developer.
In order to accomplish these functions, a developer must adhere to the part surface and
result in a uniform, highly porous layer with many paths for the penetrant to be moved
due to capillary action. Developers are either applied wet or dry, but the desired end
result is always a uniform, highly porous, surface layer. Since the quality control
requirements for each of the developer types is slightly different, they will be covered
individually.
Dry Powder Developer
A dry powder developer should be checked daily to ensure that it is fluffy and not
caked. It should be similar to fresh powdered sugar and not granulated like powdered
soap. It should also be relatively free from specks of fluorescent penetrant material
from previous inspection. This check is performed by spreading a sample of the
developer out and examining it under UV light. If there are ten or more fluorescent
specks in a 10 cm diameter area, the batch should be discarded.
Apply a light coat of the developer by immersing the test component or dusting the
surface. After the development time, excessive powder can be removed by gently
blowing on the surface with air not exceeding 35 kPa or 5 psi.
Wet Soluble/Suspendable Developer
Wet soluble developer must be completely dissolved in the water and wet suspendable
developer must be thoroughly mixed prior to application. The concentration of powder
in the carrier solution must be controlled in these developers. The concentration should
be checked at least weekly using a hydrometer to make sure it meets the manufacturer's
specification. To check for contamination, the solution should be examined weekly
using both white light and UV light. If a scum is present or the solution fluoresces, it
should be replaced. Some specifications require that a clean aluminum panel be dipped
in the developer, dried, and examined for indications of contamination by fluorescent
penetrant materials.
These developers are applied immediately after the final wash. A uniform coating
should be applied by spraying, flowing or immersing the component. They should never
be applied with a brush. Care should be taken to avoid a heavy accumulation of the
developer solution in crevices and recesses. Prolonged contact of the component with
the developer solution should be avoided in order to minimize dilution or removal of
the penetrant from discontinuities.
Solvent Suspendable (AKA Nonaqueous Wet)
Solvent suspendable developers are typically supplied in an sealed aerosol spray can.
Since the developer solution is in a sealed vessel, direct check of the solution is not
possible. However, the way that the developer is dispensed must be monitored. The
spray developer should produce a fine, even coating on the surface of the part. Make
sure the can is well shaken and apply a thin coating to a test article. If the spray
produces spatters or an uneven coating, the can should be discarded.
When applying a solvent suspendable developer, it is up to the inspector to control the
thickness of the coating. with a visible penetrant system, the developer coating must be
thick enough to provide a white contrasting background but not heavy enough to mask
indications. When using a fluorescent penetrant system, a very light coating should be
used. The developer should be applied under white light and should appear evenly
transparent.
Development Time
Parts should be allowed to develop for a minimum of 10 minutes and no more than 2
hours before inspecting.

Quality Control of Lighting

After a component has been properly processed, it is ready for inspection. While
automated vision inspection systems are sometimes used, the focus here will be on
inspections performed visually by a human inspector, as this is the dominant method.
Proper lighting is of great importance when visually inspecting a surface for a penetrant
indication. Obviously, the lighting requirements are different for an inspection
conducted using a visible dye penetrant than they are for an inspection conducted using
a fluorescent dye penetrant. The lighting requirements for each of these techniques, as
well as how light measurements are made, are discussed below.
Lighting for Visible Dye Penetrant Inspections
When using a visible penetrant, the intensity of the white light is of principal
importance. Inspections can be conducted using natural lighting or artificial lighting.
When using natural lighting, it is important to keep in mind that daylight varies from
hour to hour, so inspectors must stay constantly aware of the lighting conditions and
make adjustments when needed. To improve uniformity in lighting from one inspection
to the next, the use of artificial lighting is recommended. Artificial lighting should be
white whenever possible and white flood or halogen lamps are most commonly used.
The light intensity is required to be 100 foot-candles at the surface being inspected. It is
advisable to choose a white light wattage that will provide sufficient light, but avoid
excessive reflected light that could distract from the inspection.
Lighting for Fluorescent Penetrant Inspections
When a fluorescent penetrant is being employed, the ultraviolet (UV) illumination and
the visible light inside the inspection booth is important. Penetrant dyes are excited by
UV light of 365nm wavelength and emit visible light somewhere in the green-yellow
range between 520 and 580nm. The source of ultraviolet light is often a mercury arc
lamp with a filter. The lamps emit many wavelengths and a filter is used to remove all
but the UV and a small amount of visible light between 310 and 410nm. Visible light of
wavelengths above 410nm interferes with contrast, and UV emissions below 310nm
include some hazardous wavelengths.
Standards and procedures require verification of lens condition and light intensity.
Black lights should never be used with a cracked filter as output of white light and
harmful black light will be increased. The cleanliness of the filter should also be
checked as a coating of solvent carrier, oils, or other foreign materials can reduce the
intensity by up to as much as 50%. The filter should be checked visually and cleaned as
necessary before warm-up of the light.
Since fluorescent brightness is linear with respect to ultraviolet excitation, a change in
the intensity of the light (from age or damage) and a change in the distance of the light
source from the surface being inspected will have a direct impact on the inspection. For
UV lights used in component evaluations, the normally accepted intensity is 1000
microwatt per square centimeter when measured at 15 inches from the filter face
(requirements can vary from 800 to 1200 µW/cm2). The required check should be
performed when a new bulb is installed, at startup of the inspection cycle, if a change in
intensity is noticed, or every eight hours of continuous use. Regularly checking the
intensity of UV lights is very important because bulbs lose intensity over time. In fact, a
bulb that is near the end of its operating life will often have an intensity of only 25% of
its original output.
Black light intensity will also be affected by voltage variations. A bulb that produces
acceptable intensity at 120 volts will produce significantly less at 110 volts. For this
reason it is important to provide constant voltage to the light. Also, most UV light must
be warmed up prior to use and should be on for at least 15 minutes before beginning an
inspection.
When performing a fluorescent penetrant inspection, it is important to keep white light
to a minimum as it will significantly reduce the inspectors ability to detect fluorescent
indications. Light levels of less than 2 fc are required by most procedures with some
procedures requiring less than 0.5 fc at the inspection surface. Procedures require a
check and documentation of ambient white light in the inspection area. When checking
black light intensity at 15 inches a reading of the white light produced by the black light
may be required to verify white light is being removed by the filter.
Light Measurement
Light intensity measurements are made using a radiometer. A radiometer is an
instrument that translate light energy into an electrical current. Light striking a silicon
photodiode detector causes a charge to build up between internal layers. When an
external circuit is
connected to the cell, an electrical current is produced. This current is linear with
respect to incident light. Some radiometers have the ability to measure both black and
white light, while others require a separate sensor for each measurement. Whichever
type is used, the sensing area should be clean and free of any materials that could
reduce or obstruct light reaching the sensor. Radiometers are relatively unstable
instruments and readings often change considerable over time. Therefore, they should be
calibrated at least every six months.
Ultraviolet light measurements should be taken using a fixture to maintain a minimum
distance of 15 inches from the filter face to the sensor. The sensor should be centered in
the light field to obtain and record the highest reading. UV spot lights are often focused,
so intensity readings will vary considerable over a small area. White lights are seldom
focused and depending on the wattage, will often produce in excess of the 100 fc at 15
inches. Many specifications do not require the white light intensity check to be
conducted at a specific distance.
System Performance Check
System performance checks involve processing a test specimen with known defects to
determine if the process will reveal discontinuities of the size required. The specimen
must be processed following the same procedure used to process production parts. A
system performance check is typically required daily, at the reactivation of a system
after maintenance or repairs, or any time the system is suspected of being out of control.
As with penetrant inspections in general, results are directly dependent on the skill of
the operator and, therefore, each operator should process a panel.
The ideal specimen is a production item that has natural defects of the minimum
acceptable size. Some specification delineate the type and size of the defects that must
be present in the specimen and detected. Surface finish is will affect washability so the
check specimen should have the same surface finish as the production parts being
processed. If penetrant systems with different sensitivity levels are being used, there
should be a separate specimen for each system.
There are some universal test specimens that can be used if a standard part is not
available. The most commonly used test specimen is the TAM or PSM panel. These
panel are usually made of stainless steel that has been chrome plated on one half and
surfaced finished on the other half to produced the desired roughness. The chrome
plated section is impacted from the back side to produce a starburst set of cracks in the
chrome. There are five impacted areas to produce range of crack sizes. Each panel has
a characteristic “signature” and variances in that signature are indications of process
variance. Panel patterns as well as brightness are indicators of process consistency or
variance.
Care of system performance check specimens is critical. Specimens should be handled
carefully to avoid damage. They should be cleaned thoroughly between uses and storage
in a solvent is generally recommended. Before processing a specimen, it should be
inspected under UV light to make sure that it is clean and not already producing an
indication.
Nature of the Defect
The nature of the defect can have a large affect on sensitivity of a liquid penetrant
inspection. Sensitivity is defined as the smallest defect that can be detected with a high
degree of reliability. Typically, the crack length at the sample surface is used to define
size of the defect. A survey of any probability-of-detection curve for penetrant
inspection will quickly lead one to the conclusion that crack length has a definite affect
on sensitivity. However, the crack length alone does not determine whether a flaw will
be seen or go undetected. The volume of the defect is likely to be the more important
feature. The flaw must be of sufficient volume so that enough penetrant will bleed back
out to a size that is detectable by the eye or that will satisfy the dimensional thresholds
of fluorescence.

Above is an example of fluorescent penetrant inspection probability of detection (POD)

curve from the Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Capabilities Data Book. Please note
that this curve is specific to one set of inspection conditions and should not be
interpreted to apply to other inspection situations.
In general, penetrant inspections are more effective at finding
● small round defects than small linear defects. Small round defects are
generally easier to detect for several reasons. First, they are typically volumetric
defects that can trap significant amounts of penetrant. Second, round defects fill
with penetrant faster than linear defects. One research effort found that elliptical
flaw with length to width ratio of 100, will take the penetrant nearly 10 times
longer to fill than a cylindrical flaw with the same volume.

● deeper flaws than shallow flaws. Deeper flaws will trap more penetrant
than shallow flaws, and they are less prone to over washing.

● flaws with a narrow opening at the surface than wide open flaws. Flaws
with narrow surface openings are less prone to over washing.

● flaws on smooth surfaces than on rough surfaces. The surface roughness

of the part primarily affects the removability of a penetrant. Rough surfaces tend
to trap more penetrant in the various tool marks, scratches, and pits that make up
the surface. Removing the penetrant from the surface of the part is more difficult
and a higher level of background fluorescence or over washing may occur.

● flaws with rough fracture surfaces than smooth fracture surfaces. The
surface roughness that the fracture faces is a factor in the speed at which a
penetrant enters a defect. In general, the penetrant spreads faster over a surface as
the surface roughness increases. It should be noted that a particular penetrant may
spread slower than others on a smooth surface but faster than the rest on a rougher
surface.

● flaws under tensile or no loading than flaws under compression loading.

In a 1987 study at the University College London, the effect of crack closure on
detectability was evaluated. Researchers used a four-point bend fixture to place
tension and compression loads on specimens that were fabricated to contain
fatigue cracks. All cracks were detected with no load and with tensile loads
placed on the parts. However, as compressive loads were placed on the parts, the
 crack length steadily decreased as load increased until a load was reached when
the crack was no longer detectable.
Health and Safety Precautions in Liquid Penetrant Inspection
When proper health and safety precautions are followed, liquid penetrant inspection
operations can be completed without harm to inspection personnel. However, there are
a number of health and safety related issues that must be addressed. Since each
inspection operation will have its own unique set of health and safety concerns that must
be addressed, only a few of the most common concerns will be discussed here.
Chemical Safety
Whenever chemicals must be handled, certain precautions must be taken as directed by
the material safety data sheets (MSDS) for the chemicals. Before working with a
chemical of any kind, it is highly recommended that the MSDS be reviewed so that
proper chemical safety and hygiene practices can be followed. Some of the penetrant
materials are flammable and, therefore, should be used and stored in small quantities.
They should only be used in a well ventilated area and ignition sources avoided. Eye
protection should always be worn to prevent contact of the chemicals with the eyes.
Many of the chemicals used contain detergents and solvents that can dermatitis. Gloves
and other protective clothing should be worn to limit contact with the chemicals.
Ultraviolet Light Safety
Ultraviolet (UV) light or "black light" as it is sometimes called, has wavelengths
ranging from 180 to 400 nanometers. These wavelengths place UV light in the invisible
part of the electromagnetic spectrum between visible light and X-rays. The most
familiar source of UV radiation is the the sun and is necessary in small doses for certain
chemical processes to occur in the body. However, too much exposure can be harmful to
the skin and eyes. Excessive UV light exposure can cause painful sunburn, accelerate
wrinkling and increase the risk of skin cancer. UV light can cause eye inflammation,
cataracts, and retinal damage.
Because of their close proximity, laboratory devices, like UV lamps, deliver UV light at
a much higher intensity than the sun and, therefore, can cause injury much more quickly.
The greatest threat with UV light exposure is that the individual is generally unaware
that the damage is occurring. There is usually no pain associated with the injury until
several hours after the exposure. Skin and eye damage occurs at wavelengths around
320 nm and shorter which is well below the 365 nm wavelength, where penetrants are
designed to fluoresce. Therefore, UV lamps sold for use in LPI application are almost
always filtered to remove the harmful UV wavelengths. The lamps produce radiation at
the harmful wavelengths so it is essential that they be used with the proper filter in
place and in good condition.
Step by Step Dye Penetrant Testing
The article addresses a step by step dye penetrant testing process. There are two
techniques for dye penetrant test as follow:

● Color contrast or visible dye penetrant testing

● Fluorescent dye penetrant testing

Each of above techniques can be performed with three different processes as follow:

● Solvent Removable
● Water Washable
● Lipophilic / Hydrophilic emulsification

In this article, we are going to explain the simplest technique and process which is used
for portable application in the field. Some of the above-mentioned processes are
designed for lab test application and would not be easy to be conducted in the field.
Here is the step by step dye penetrant testing process:

Step by Step Dye Penetrant Testing - Visible Technique with Solvent Removable
Process
Step 1 - Precleaning of the Surface
The 3 spray cans (aerosol) are provided for this test. First one is named cleaner. The
technician sprays the cleaner to the test object and then cleans the surface with non-used
rag or cloth. The sprayed material is evaporated rapidly. So the technsion needs to
clean the surface instantly.
Step 2- Application of Penetrant

In the second step, the technician applies penetrant spray can to the surface which is in
sharp red color. The technician needs to wait for 5 to 15 minutes depends on test
procedure. In this time, the penetrant liquid enters to the crack (normally is not visible).
The penetrant liquid soaks inside of the defects/ imperfections by capillary action.
Step 3- Removal of the Excess Penetrant Liquid

In the third step, the technician removes penetrant liquid from the surface by rag or cloth
and uses back and forth rubbing to clean the surface. No red color should be visible
after cleaning. Then technison takes a clean rag and sprays some cleaner on a cloth and
then cleans the surface one more time. This can be done two or three times to remove
all penetrant liquid from the surface. Please note by the capillary action; the penetrant
liquid still is in the cracks or hot tear or any other imperfection. It will not come out by
cleaning as described.

Step 4 - Application of Developer

In the fourth step, the technician takes the developer spray can and agitates it and then
sprays to the surface. Then he waits for 10 minutes. In this time, the defect will be
visible, the developer material uses reverse capillary action and bleeds out the red
penetrant, and if there is a crack in the surface, you will see a red line within the white
color covered by developer material.

Step 5 - Evaluation / Interpretation

In the fifth step, The ASNT Level II liquid penetrant inspector evaluates the test result
based on the acceptance criteria indicated in the approved test procedure. Please note
one indication might be considered imperfection and be rejected by one acceptance
criteria and be accepted by another one. So it is imperative that the test be evaluated
with right acceptance criteria.

Step 6 - Liquid Penetrant Test Report

In the sixth step, The technician prepares the report and indicates the test results and
submits to the customer.
 Magnetic Particle Examination
Magnetic particle examination (MT) is a very popular, low-cost method to perform
nondestructive examination (NDE) of ferromagnetic material. Ferromagnetic is defined
in ASME Section V as “a term applied to materials that can be magnetized or strongly
attracted by a magnetic field.” MT is an NDE method that checks for surface
discontinuities but can also reveal discontinuities slightly below the surface.
How Magnetic Particle Examination Works

When ferromagnetic material (typically iron or steel) is defect-free, it will transfer lines
of magnetic flux (field) through the material without any interruption.

But when a crack or other discontinuity is present, the magnetic flux leaks out of the
material. As it leaks, magnetic flux (magnetic field) will collect ferromagnetic particles
(iron powder), making the size and shape of the discontinuity easily visible.

However, the magnetic flux will only leak out of the material if the discontinuity is
generally perpendicular to its flow. If the discontinuity, such as a crack, is parallel to
the lines of magnetic flux, there will be no leakage and therefore no indication
observed. To resolve this issue, each area needs to be examined twice. The second
examination needs to be perpendicular to the first so discontinuities in any direction are
detected. The examiner must ensure that enough overlap of areas of magnetic flux is
maintained throughout the examination process so discontinuities are not missed.

History of Magnetic Particle Examination

Magnetism was first used as early as 1868 to check for cannon barrel defects. Cannon
barrels were first magnetized and then a magnetic compass was moved down the length
of the barrel. If a discontinuity was present, the magnetic flux would leak out and cause
the compass needle to move. Defects could be easily located with this technique.

In the early 1920s, William Hoke noticed metallic grindings from hard steel parts (held
by a magnetic chuck while being ground) formed patterns that followed the cracks in the
surface of parts he was machining. He also found that by applying fine ferromagnetic
powder to the parts, there was a build-up of powder at the discontinuities which formed
a more visible indication.

By the 1930s, MT was quickly replacing the oil and whiting method of NDE (liquid
penetrant [PT]) in the railroad industry. It was quicker and did not leave behind the
white powder that required clean-up. After an MT evaluation, only iron powder was
left behind, which could easily fall off the part or be blown away.

Different Techniques

There are many different techniques and combinations of techniques of MT. The ASME
Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section V, Article 7, recognizes five different
techniques of magnetization:
1. Prod technique
 2. Longitudinal magnetization technique
3. Circular magnetization technique

4. Yoke technique
5. Multidirectional magnetization technique
There are two different ferromagnetic examination media: dry particles and wet
particles. Both forms can be either fluorescent or non-fluorescent (visible, color
contrast) and come in a variety of colors to contrast with the tested material.

Most-Used Methods

Two of the most-used methods are the stationary horizontal system, using longitudinal
and circular magnetization techniques, and the very portable yoke technique.

A stationary magnetic particle examination system set up for longi-

tudinal and circular magnetization using wet fluorescent particles.
Stationary systems are generally used for smaller parts such as crank shafts and valve
stems. They are often found indoors around machine shops and heat-treating facilities.
Typically they have a headstock and tailstock. Parts can be clamped between stocks for
magnetization. There is also a coil placed around the part to magnetize it in the
perpendicular direction. Stationary horizontal systems use the wet particle technique
with a circulation tank below the equipment. Wet particles flow over the examined part
and drain into the circulation tank. Wet particles have more mobility flowing in a liquid
than dry particles. This mobility helps sensitivity by allowing particles to easily move
to the discontinuities. Fluorescent particles are commonly used with stationary
horizontal systems because indoor operation makes it easy to darken the area; required
ultraviolet (black) light can then be used to evaluate the parts. Both wet method
examinations have about the same sensitivity, but under correct lighting conditions,
fluorescent indications are much easier to see. This type of stationary system can cost
$15,000 or more.

External longitudinal seam of an inservice boiler being checked with

magnetic particle examination using an AC yoke with dry powder.
The MT yoke technique is the most portable and lowest-cost method, and therefore the
most popular method. A typical yoke kit would cost around $750. Most yokes can
operate in alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) modes. DC gives the most
penetration and is recommended if subsurface discontinuities need to be detected. AC is
recommended if the surface is rough, because AC gives the particles more mobility than
DC. A yoke has an electric coil in the unit creating a longitudinal magnetic field that
transfers through the legs to the examined part. The yoke technique is easy to use with
minimal training. It can be used indoors, outdoors, inside vessels and tanks, and in all
positions. Prior to use, the magnetizing power of electromagnetic yoke shall have been
checked within the past year. An AC yoke must have a lifting power of at least 10 lb and
a DC yoke of at least 40 lb.

Basic Steps
The following illustrate basic steps to use with the dry powder, non-fluorescent, yoke
technique. Prior to the start of examination, all equipment and meters shall be calibrated
in accordance with ASME Section V, Article 7.

ASME Section V, Article 7 requires the magnetic particle visible method (color
contrast) be evaluated with a minimum light intensity of 100 footcandles on the part
surface. The proper quantity of light must be verified using some type of calibrated light
meter and witnessed and accepted by the inspector. If fluorescent magnetic particles are
being used, a black light shall achieve a minimum of 1,000 microwatts per square
centimeter on the examined surface. If alternate wavelength light sources are used to
provide ultraviolet light, causing fluorescence in the particles, it shall be qualified in
accordance with ASME Section V, Article 7, Appendix IV.

Light meter showing 107.0 footcandles of light.

Typical Examples of ASME Code-Required Inspections

In the ASME codes of construction, magnetic particle examination or liquid penetrant

examination is specified many times to detect the possibility of surface defects. If
material is nonmagnetic, the only choice is liquid penetrant examination. However, if
material is ferromagnetic, magnetic particle examination is generally used. Some typical
examples of ASME Code-required inspections include, but are not limited to:

⇢ Castings for surface defects

⇢ Plates for laminations in corner joints when the edge of one plate is
exposed and - ⇢ not fused into the weld joint

⇢ Head spin hole plug welds

⇢ Weld metal build-up on plates

⇢ Areas where defects have been removed before weld repair

Once boilers and pressure vessels are in service, MT can be a widely-used examination
method. The National Board Inspection Code (NBIC) specifies MT may be used for the
inspection of items such as:
⇢ Internal and external surfaces of boiler and pressure vessels

⇢ Vessels in liquid ammonia service

⇢ Components subjected to fire damage

⇢ Locomotive and historical boilers

⇢ Yankee dryers
⇢ Cargo tanks

⇢ Vessels in LP gas service

⇢ Weld repairs and alterations to pressure-retaining items

Typical Inservice Inspections
 MT examination of a lifting lug weld
MT examination of the longitudinal
on an inservice boiler.
seam on an inservice boiler.

Use of an AC yoke in the MT process Crack in seal weld of boiler tube to

to detect fatigue-type steam drum discovered with
discontinuities in welded seams of a MT. This was the result of improper
steam drum during inservice repair procedures.
evaluation.

Wet fluorescent MT process showing

a crack in a steam drum
circumferential weld seam.
Water-tube Inspection

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Magnetic Particle Examination

Advantages:
➟ Can detect both surface and near-surface indications.

➟ Surface preparation is not as critical compared to other NDE methods.

Most surface contaminants will not hinder detection of a discontinuity.

➟ A relatively fast method of examination.

➟ Indications are visible directly on the surface.

➟ Low-cost compared to many other NDE methods.

➟ A portable NDE method, especially when used with battery-powered

yoke equipment.

➟ Post-cleaning generally not necessary.

➟ A relatively safe technique; materials generally not combustible or

hazardous.
 ➟ Indications can show relative size and shape of the discontinuity.

➟ Easy to use and requires minimal amount of training.

Disadvantages:
➟ Non-ferrous materials, such as aluminum, magnesium, or most stainless
steels, cannot be inspected.

➟ Examination of large parts may require use of equipment with special

power requirements.

➟ May require removal of coating or plating to achieve desired sensitivity.

➟ Limited subsurface discontinuity detection capabilities.

➟ Post-demagnetization is often necessary.

➟ Alignment between magnetic flux and indications is important.

➟ Each part needs to be examined in two different directions.

➟ Only small sections or small parts can be examined at one time.

Conclusion,
Magnetic particle examination can be a useful nondestructiveexamination method during
new construction and inserviceinspections. It can only be used on ferromagnetic
materials; therefore, it is not the best method for all applications. For quick, low-cost
inspections, MT is often the best NDE method for detecting surface and slightly
subsurface discontinuities.
Magnetization of Ferromagnetic
Materials
There are a variety of methods that can be used to establish a magnetic
field in a component for evaluation using magnetic particle inspection. It is
common to classify the magnetizing methods as either direct or indirect.

Magnetization Using Direct Induction (Direct

Magnetization)
With direct magnetization, current is passed directly through the
component. Recall that whenever current flows, a magnetic field is
produced. Using the right-hand rule, which was introduced earlier, it is
known that the magnetic lines of flux form normal to the direction of the
current and form a circular field in and around the conductor. When using
the direct magnetization method, care must be taken to ensure that good
electrical contact is established and maintained between the test equipment
and the test component. Improper contact can result in arcing that may
damage the component. It is also possible to overheat components in areas
of high resistance such as the contact points and in areas of small cross-
sectional area.

There are several ways that direct magnetization is commonly

accomplished. One way involves clamping the component between two
electrical contacts in a special piece of equipment. Current is passed
through the component and a circular magnetic field is established in and
around the component. When the magnetizing current is stopped, a residual
magnetic field will remain within the component. The strength of the
induced magnetic field is proportional to the amount of current passed
through the component.

A second technique involves using clamps or prods, which are attached or

placed in contact with the component. Electrical current flows through the
component from contact to contact. The current sets up a circular magnetic
field around the path of the current.

Magnetization Using Indirect Induction (Indirect

Magnetization)
Indirect magnetization is accomplished by using a strong external magnetic
field to establish a magnetic field within the component. As with direct
magnetization, there are several ways that indirect magnetization can be
accomplished.
The use of permanent magnets is a low cost method of establishing a
magnetic field. However, their use is limited due to lack of control of the
field strength and the difficulty of placing and removing strong permanent
magnets from the component.
Electromagnets in the form of an adjustable horseshoe magnet (called a
yoke) eliminate the problems associated with permanent magnets and are
used extensively in industry. Electromagnets only exhibit a magnetic flux
when electric current is flowing around the soft iron core. When the
magnet is placed on the component, a magnetic field is established
between the north and south poles of the magnet.

Another way of indirectly inducting a magnetic field in a material is by

using the magnetic field of a current carrying conductor. A circular
magnetic field can be established in cylindrical components by using a
central conductor. Typically, one or more cylindrical components are hung
from a solid copper bar running through the inside diameter. Current is
passed through the copper bar and the resulting circular magnetic field
establishes a magnetic field within the test components.
The use of coils and solenoids is a third method of indirect magnetization.
When the length of a component is several times larger than its diameter, a
longitudinal magnetic field can be established in the component. The
component is placed longitudinally in the concentrated magnetic field that
fills the center of a coil or solenoid. This magnetization technique is often
referred to as a "coil shot."

Ultrasonic Testing Procedure

This a sample UT procedure and you need to modify it to meet your project
specification.

Scope

1.1-This procedure describes the general requirements for Ultrasonic examination of

metallic welding according related approved weld maps as may be required by the
specification or under .which component is being designed and manufactured.

1.2- This procedure provides the materials, equipment, personnel qualification,

examination process, evaluation, record and acceptance standards for XXX project
which will be fabricated in YYY Company
1.3-Ultrasonic testing / examination shall be performed in accordance with the
procedure which shall as a minimum contain the requirement of table T-421 in ASME
Section V.

References

2.1- ANSI, ASME [Link] devision 1 & 2 Appendix 12

2.2- ANSI, ASME Sec.V article 4 & 5

2.3- ANSI recommended practices [Link]-TC-1A for NDT personnel qualification

and certification

General:

3.1-Basic Requirements and Terms

When this procedure is specified by a referencing code section, the ultrasonic testing
method described in this procedure shall be used with ASME code section V-article 1,
4 & 5 & ASME [Link], DIV.1. When SA, SB and SE documents are referenced, they
are located in article 23.

3.2-Examination coverage (scan overlap)

Each pass of the search unit shall overlap minimum 10% of the transducer (piezo-
electric element) dimension perpendicular to the direction of the scan.

3.3- Rate of search unit movements

The rate of search unit movement for examination shall not exceed 6 inch/sec(150
mm/s).

Personnel Qualification:

The N.D.T. personnel whose performing ultrasonic testing / examination shall be

qualified and meets the requirements of level II, in Accordance to ASNT-SNT-TC-1A.

Surface Preparation

The surface to be subject to ultrasonic testing shall be free from any existing lubricants,
dirt, residue, rust and sharp edges, so; to smoothly carry on the procedure.
Equipments

6.1- Examination shall be conducted with a pulse echo A-Scan ultrasonic testing
instrument capable of generating frequencies over the range of at least 1 MHZ to 5
MHZ. Ultrasonic testing instrument shall be calibrated for the examination and shall be
capable of meeting the requirements of screen height linearity and amplitude control
linearity in paragraph 5.3 & 5.4 of this procedure.(Trade name of ultrasonic testing
instrument is krautkramer USN-52) Ultrasonic testing instrument shall be equipped with
stepped gain control in units of 2 dB or less (according to ASME sec V-T-431).

6.2- Search Units

Search units may contain either single or dual transducer [Link] search unit size
shall be selected according to the following table.

(1) Straight Beam. (either single or dual crystal)

Frequency(MHz) Transducer Material

size(mm) thickness(mm)

4 or 5 Ø10 25.4 or less

2 or 4 Ø10 or Ø20 Over 25.4

(2) Angle Beam

Search Frequency(MHz) Transducer Material

unit Angle size(mm) thickness(mm)

70º 4 Ø10 12.5 or less

60º , 70º 4 Ø10 12.5 or 25.4
45º , 60º or 4 Ø10 Over 25.4
45º , 70º

(3) Search units with contoured contact wedges may be used to aid ultrasonic coupling.

6.3-Screen Height Linearity

The ultrasonic testing instrument shall provide linear vertical presentation within ±5%
(According to ASME Sec.V, Article 5 T-532) of the full screen height for 20% to 80%
of the calibrated screen height.

The procedure for evaluating screen height linearity is provided in appendix 1 of article
5, ASME code Sec.V and shall be performed at the beginning of each period of
extended use (or every 3 months, which ever is less).

6.4-Amplitude Control linearity

The ultrasonic testing instrument shall utilize an amplitude control accurate over its
useful range to ± 20% of the nominal amplitude ratio, to allow measurement of
indications beyond the linear range of the vertical display on the screen, the procedure
for evaluating amplitude control linearity is given in appendix 2 of article 5, ASME
code Sec.V and Shall be performed at the beginning of each period of extended use (or
every 6 months, whichever is less).

6.5- Couplant

SAE No.20 or No 30 motor oil, glycerin and adhesive wall paper shall be used.
Couplants may not be comparable to one another, and the same couplant shall be used
for calibration and examination. couplant used on nickel base alloy shall not contain
more than 250 ppm of sulfur and those used on austenitic stainless steel shall not contain
more than 250 ppm of halides (chlorides plus flourides).

6.6-Angel & Mode of Wave Propagation in the Material

For angel beam probe , the mode of wave propagation in material is shear wave and the
related applicable angel & size & frequency is described in table 6.2.2.

For normal beam probe, the mode of wave propagation in material is longitudinal wave
and the related applicable angel & size & frequency is described in table 6.2.1.

Calibration:

7.1- Basic Calibration Blocks

7.1.1- The basic calibration reflectors shall be used to establish a primary reference
response of the [Link] basic calibration reflectors may be located either in the
component material or in a basic calibration block. Where the most used blocks in this
regards are block V1 & V2. (approved calibration). Also basic calibration blocks shall
be utilized to construct a distance amplitude correction curve (DAC). Basic calibration
reflectors shall be according to ASME, Sec.V, T434.2.1 (for non piping calibration
block) and T-434.3(for piping calibration block).And certificates for U.T. equipment,
test block V1 & V2 probes etc. shall be submitted to the purchaser.

7.1.2- Block Selection

Basic calibration blocks shall be of similar metallurgical structure and the same
material specification or an equivalent P-number grouping as the finished component for
the purpose of this, P-numbers 1,3,4 & 5 materials are considered [Link] finish
on the surfaces of the block shall be representative of the scanning surface finishes on
the components to the examined.

7.2- System Calibration

7.2.1- Angle Beam Calibrations

As applicable the calibration shall provide the following measurements (refer to article
4, appendix B, ASME code Sec.

(1) Distance Range Calibration

(2) Distance-Amplitude Correction

(3) Position Calibration

(4) Echo Amplitude Measurement from the Surface Notch in the Basic Calibration
Block.

When an electronic distance amplitude correction device is used, the primary reference
responses from the basic calibration block shall be equalized at a screen height between
40 to 80% of full screen height over the distance range to be employed in the
examination.
7.2.2- Straight Beam Calibration

The calibration shall provide the following measurements(Refer to article 5, ASME

code Sec. V ).

(1) Distance Range Calibration

(2) Distance-Amplitude Correction

When an electronic distance-amplitude correction device is used, the primary reference

response from the basic calibration block shall be equalized on the basic calibration
block at a screen height between 40% and 80% of full screen height over the distance
range to be employed in the examination.

7.3- Calibration Confirmation

Calibration shall be performed prior to use of the system in the thickness range under
examination. A calibration check shall verify the sweep range calibration and distance-
amplitude correction.

7.3.1- Distance Range Points

If a point on the DAC curve has moved on the sweep line more than 10% of the sweep
reading or 5% of full sweep, which ever is greater, correct the distance range
calibration and note the correction in the examination record. If reflectors are recorded
on the data sheets, those data sheets shall be voided and a new calibration shall be
recorded.

All recorded indications since the last valid calibration or calibration check shall be
Re-examined with the corrected calibration and their values shall be changed on the
data sheets.

7.3.2- DAC correction If a point on the distance-amplitude correction (DAC) curve has
decreased 20% or 2 db of its amplitude, all data sheets since the last calibration or
calibration check shall be marked void. A new calibration shall be made and recorded
and the area covered by the voided data shall be Re-examined. If any point of the
distance-amplitude correction (DAC) curve has increased more than 20% or 2 db of its
amplitude, all recorded indications since the last valid calibration or calibration check
shall be Re-examined with the corrected calibration and their values shall be changed
on the data sheets.

Examination

8.1- General Requirements:

The scanning shall be performed at a gain setting at least two times the primary
reference level evaluation shall be performed with respect to the primary reference
level.

The volumes shall be scanned by straight and angle beam techniques as a described in
detail in paragraph 8 angle beams, having nominal angles as recommended in table
6.2.1 & 6.2.2 with respect to a perpendicular to the examination surface, shall generally
be [Link] pairs of angle beams are permitted provided the measured difference
between the angle is at least 10º.

8.1.1- Angle beam method scanning shall be made basically from outside of the vessel
by the direct contact method. The angle beam shall be directed at approximately right
angle to the weld axis from two direction where possible to detect the reflectors
oriented angular to the weld .In addition, the angle beam shall be directed essentially
parallel to the weld axis to detect the reflectors oriented transverse to the weld. The
search unit shall be manipulated so that the ultrasonic energy passes through the whole
volumes of weld and heat affected zone (20mm) of base [Link] refraction angle of
the angle beam transducer & exit point shall be measured using IIW standard calibration
block. The tolerance of the refraction angle shall not be more than ±2º

8.1.2- Straight Beam Method

(1) The heat affected zone and weld where practicable shall be scanned with the
straight beam search unit, before scanning with angle beam.

(2) The scanning of the adjacent base metal of at least 2t tana (where t=base metal
thickness & a=1/2 groove angle) shall be performed to detect reflectors that affect
interpretation of angle beam results, and is not to be used as an acceptance rejection
examination. Locations and areas of such reflectors shall be recorded.

8.2- Surface Preparation

The base metal on each side of the weld shall be free of weld spatter, surface
irregularities, or foreign matter that might interfere with the examination.

8.3- Scanning Sensitivity

The scanning shall be performed at a gain setting at least two times the primary
reference level and evaluation shall be performed with respect to the primary reference
level.

8.4- Detection of Defects Parallel to the Weld

The angle beam shall be directed at approximately right angle to the weld axix from two
directions where possible.

The search unit shall be manipulated so that the ultrasonic beam passes through the
required volumes of weld and adjacent base metal.

8.5- Detection of Traverse Defects

The angle beam shall be directed angular to the weld axis. The search unit shall be
manipulated so that the ultrasonic beam passes through the all of the volume be
examined.

8.6-Method of Sizing Indications

For normal & angel beam ultrasonic testing inspection , method of sizing indication is
half value method measurement (6 dB drop) as follow:

The size of reflectors which are large is comparison to the sound beam diameter can be
determines by edge scanning probe is moved from a position witch provides the
optimum flaw echo to the edge of the [Link] point at which the echo height is half the
optimum value,[Link] the beam axis is incident on the edge of the flow,is marked on
the testing surface.a series of such point outline the reflector surface.
The half value length (HVL) is the distance measured on the test object between edge
point in a longitudinal direction,the half value width (HVW) in a normal direction.

The 6 dB technique involves obtaining an echo from a position where the reflector
extends across the full width of ultrasonic beam and then moving the beam along the
reflector until the echo has fallen by half (i.e by 6 dB).it is then assumed that only one
half of the beam is impinging on the reflector whose edge,therefore,lies along the beam
[Link] technique is applicable to both normal & angel probes,and is most frequently
used for the potting of lamination in plate ,and for measuring the length of linear
imperfection in welds.

8.7-Direction & Extend of Scanning

Direction of scanning in ultrasonic testing inspection of weld line angle beam probe
shall be perpendicular to weld line axis & extended of related scanning shall be cover
the full skip area & 100 % of weld line .for detection of defects parallel to the weld
line axis shall meet the requirement [Link] detection of transfer defects to the weld line
axis shall meet the requirement 8.5.

8.8-Method for discriminating geometric from flow indication

● Linear indication such as cracks (transfer & longitudinal), lack of

penetration,lack of fusion and slag line produce single very sharp and height flow
indication that when search unit swing around the defect’s location cause
immediate drop of related echo in ultrasonic testing display device.

● Rounded indication such as isolated porosity & slag produce single low gain
flow indication that when search unit swing around the defect’s location ,related
echo in ultrasonic testing display device not eliminate immediately.

● Rounded indication such as cluster porosity produce multi-flow indication

like a grass & noise.

● Location(depth & distance) of all above indication shall be investigate &

interpretate by estimation of maximum sound path of related indication .
 ● False and Non relevant indication shall be separate by relevant indication
with interpretation of the depth , location , height of related echo , ….by expert
ultrasonic testing operator.

8.9-Weld configuration to be examined(including thickness dimension & base material

product form)

The applicable thickness dimension for ultrasonic testing inspection in this project is
above 10 mm.

Base material product form for this project if plate & pipe form.

8.10-Scaning method

The scaning method for this procedure is manual with A-scan method

Evaluation:

Any imperfection which causes an indication in excess of 20% DAC shall be

investigated to the extent that it can be evaluated in terms of the acceptance standards of
the referencing code section (refer to T 480 ASME code Sec V Article 4).

Acceptance standard

10.1-ASME Section VIII division I, Appendix 12

All imperfections that produce an amplitude greater than 20% of the reference level
shall be investigated to the extent that the operator can determine the shape, identity and
location of all such imperfections and evaluate them in terms of the following
acceptance standards.

10.1.1- Imperfections that are interpreted to be cracks, lack of fusion or incomplete

penetration are unacceptable regardless of length.

10.1.2- All other linear type imperfections are unacceptable, if the amplitude exceeds
the reference level and the length of the imperfection exceeds the following:

(1) ¼ in. for T up to ¾ in.

(2) 1/3 T for T from ¾in. to 2 ¼ in.

(3) ¾ in. for T over 2 ¼ in.

Where T is the thickness of the weld excluding any allowable reinforcement.

For a butt weld joining two members having different thicknesses at the weld, T is the
thinnest of these two thickness.

If a full penetration weld includes a fillet weld, the thickness of the throat of the fillet
shall be included in T.

Reports:

A report of the examinations shall be made. The report shall include a record indicating
the welds or volume examined (this maybe marked-up sketched) the location of each
recorded reflector, and the identification of the operator whom carries out each
examination or part there of as detailed in T-493, ASME Sec.V article 4.

A record of all reflections from uncorrected areas having responses that exceed 50% of
the reference level shall be maintained. This record shall locate each area, the response
level, the dimension, the depth below the surface, and the classification.
ULTRASONIC TESTING IN DETAIL
Introduction
Nondestructive material testing with ultrasonics is more than 40 years old. From the very first examinations, using
ultrasonic oscillations for detection of flaws in different materials, it has become a classical test method based on
measurements with due regard to all the important influencing factors. Today it is expected that ultrasonic testing,
supported by great advances in instrument technology, give reproducible test results within narrow tolerances. This
assumes exact knowledge of the influencing factors and the ability to apply these in testing technology. Not all influences
have to be seriously regarded by the operator. In many cases some of the influences can be neglected without exceeding
the permitted measurement tolerances. Due to this, the test sequence is simplified and the testing time reduced. Despite
this, the future belongs to the qualified operator who carries out his task responsibly and who continuously endeavours to
keep his knowledge at the latest state of the art.

Why use ultrasonics for nondestructive material testing?

● At the beginning of the fifties the technician only knew radiography (x-ray or radioactive isotopes) as a
method for detection of internal flaws in addition to the methods for nondestructive testing of material surfaces,
e.g. the dye penetrant and magnetic particle method. After the Second World War the ultrasonic method,
as described by Sokolovin1935 and applied by Firestonein 1940, was further developed so that very soon
instruments were available for ultrasonic testing of materials. The ultrasonic principle is based on the fact that
solid materials are good conductors of sound waves. Whereby the waves are not only reflected at the interfaces
but also by internal flaws (material separations, inclusions etc.). The interaction effect of sound waves with the
material is stronger the smaller the wave length, this means the higher the frequency of the wave.

● c = Sound velocity [km/s]

● ● f = Frequency [MHz]
● l = Wave lenght [mm]

● This means that ultrasonic waves must be used in a frequency range between about 0.5 MHz and 25 MHz
and that the resulting wave length is in mm. With lower frequencies, the interaction effect of the waves with
internal flaws would be so small that detection becomes questionable. Both test methods, radiography and
ultrasonic testing, are the most frequently used methods of testing different test pieces for internal flaws, partly
covering the application range and partly extending it. This means that today many volume tests are possible with
the more economical and non-risk ultrasonic test method, on the other hand special test problems are solved, the
same as before, using radiography. In cases where the highest safety requirements are demanded (e.g. nuclear
power plants, aerospace industry) both methods are used.

Ultrasonic testing tasks

● Is there a primary classification of tasks assigned to the ultrasonic operator? If we limit ourselves to testing
objects for possible material flaws then the classification is as follows:

1. Detection of reflectors
 2. Location of reflectors

3. Evaluation of reflectors

4. Diagnosis of reflectors (reflector type, orientation, etc.)

● Instead of using the word "reflector", the ultrasonic operator very often uses the term "discontinuity".
This is defined as being an "irregularity in the test object which is suspected as being a flaw". In reality, only after
location, evaluation and diagnosis has been made, can it be determined whether or not there is a flaw which
effects the purpose of the test object. The term "discontinuity" is therefore always used as long as it is not
certain whether it concerns a flaw which means a non-permissible irregularity.

Detection of discontinuities
The essential "tool" for the ultrasonic operator is the probe, Figs. 1a + 1b. The piezoelectric element, excited by an
extremely short electrical discharge, transmits an ultrasonic pulse. The same element on the other hand generates an
electrical signal when it receives an ultrasonic signal thus causing it to oscillate. The probe is coupled to the surface of the
test object with a liquid or coupling paste so that the sound waves from the probe are able to be transmitted into the test
object.

Fig. 1a Straight-beam probe (section) Fig. 1b Angle-beam probe (section)

The operator then scans the test object, i.e. he moves the probe evenly to and fro across the surface. In doing this, he
observes an instrument display for any signals caused by reflections from internal discontinuities, Fig. 2.
 Fig. 2b Plane flaw - angle-beam probe

Fig. 2a Plane flaw - straight-beam probe

Fig. 3 Sound field

Every probe has a certain directivity, i.e. the ultrasonic waves only cover a certain section of the test object. The area
effective for the ultrasonic test is called the "sound beam" which is characteristic for the applied probe and material in
which sound waves propagate. A sound beam can be roughly divided into a convergent (focusing) area, the near-field,
and a divergent (spreading) part, the far field, Fig. 3. The length N of the near-field (near-field length) and the
divergence angle is dependent on the diameter of the element, its frequency and the sound velocity of the material to be
tested. The center beam is termed the acoustic axis.
The shape of the sound beam plays an important part in the selection of a probe for solving a test problem. It is often
sufficient to draw the acoustic axis in order to show what the solution to a test task looks like. A volumetric discontinuity
(hollow space, foreign material) reflects the sound waves in different directions, Figs. 4a + 4b.
 Fig. 4b Volumetric discontinuity - angle-beam probe

Fig. 4a Volumetric discontinuity - straight-

beam probe

The portion of sound wave which comes back to the probe after being reflected by the discontinuity is mainly dependent
on the direction of the sound wave; i.e. it does not matter whether scanning is made with a straight-beam probe or an
angle-beam probe or whether it is carried out from different surfaces on the test object, Fig. 5. If the received portion of
the reflected sound wave from the probe is sufficient then the detection of the existing volumetric discontinuity is not
critical, this means that the operator is able to detect it by scanning from different directions. A plane (two-dimensional)
discontinuity (e.g. material separation, crack) reflects the ultrasonic waves mostly in a certain direction, Fig. 6.

Fig. 5 Volumetric flaw - detection form different

directions Fig. 6 Reflection on angled plane discontinuity

If the reflected portion of the sound wave is not received by the probe then it is unlikely that the discontinuity will be
detected. The possibilities of detection only increase when the plane discontinuity is hit vertically by the sound beam. This
applies to discontinuities which are isolated within the test object.
 Fig. 7 Apparent
deformation of the
sound beam on a side
wall

With plane discontinuities which are open to the surface of the test object, e.g. a crack running vertically from the surface
into the test object, a vertical scan of the crack does not always produce the required success. In this case wave
overlapping occurs (interferences) due to sound wave reflection on the side wall of the test object which seems as if the
sound wave bends away from the corresponding side wall, Fig. 7. In such cases, the probability of crack detection is very
good if the angle reflection effect is used, Fig. 8a. At the 90° edge, between the crack and the surface of the test
object, the sound waves are reflected back within themselves due to a double reflection, Fig. 8b. Use of the angle
reflection effect is often even possible when a plane discontinuity, which is vertical to the surface, does not extend to the
surface and under the condition that the sound wave reflections at the discontinuity and the surface are received by the
probe, Fig. 9.

Fig. 8b Angle reflection effect

Fig. 8a Crack detection with 45° scanning

Fig. 9 Plane, vertical reflector near the surface

 Fig. 10a Angle reflection effect Fig. 10b Tandem testing: center Fig. 10c Tamden testing: lower
zone zone F

Often in thick-walled test objects, in which there are vertical discontinuities, this condition cannot be fulfilled so that the
reflected sound waves from the discontinuity and the surface of the test object do not return to the probe. In this case, a
second probe is used for receiving the reflected portions of sound thus enabling detection of the discontinuity.
With this type of testing, the Tandem Technique, one probe is used as a transmitter, and the other probe is used as the
receiver. Both probes are moved over the surface of the test object and are spaced apart at a fixed distance. Scanning is
made for vertically positioned discontinuities at different depths of the test object, depending on the probe spacing, Figs.
10a, 10b and 10c.
Although, with angle scanning in thin test objects, there is a possibility that plane discontinuities cannot be vertically hit,
Fig. 11 a, the detection sensitivity is much better, especially by suitable selection of the scanning angle and the test
frequency so that the user favours the single probe test as opposed to the more complicated tandem method. This is
normally the case when testing welds up to a thickness of about 30 mm.
Of course the possibility of detecting discontinuities which are not vertically hit is reduced. However, this deficiency is
often compensated by an additional test with another angle of incidence, Fig. 11 b, or by using a probe with a lower
frequency, Fig. 11 c. A typical procedure can be found in the corresponding specifications (test instructions) for weld
testing.

Fig. 11a 70° scanning: unfavourable angle

Fig. 11c 70° scanning with 2 MHz; detection by

large divergence of the sound beam

Fig. 11b 45° scanning: favourable angle

Method of testing and instrument technology
The ultrasonic flaw detector
Before we concern ourselves with further test tasks and their solutions, we must firstly acquire more detailed knowledge
about the most frequently applied ultrasonic technique, including test instruments and probes. Based on what has already
been stated concerning the location of discontinuities, we must transmit short sound pulses into the test object in order to
measure the sound pulse's time of flight from the probe to the reflector and back. This is only possible when there is a
clearly defined start time and target time. As long as the test object's sound velocity is known it is then possible to
determine, using simple calculation, the distance of the reflector and thus its exact position in the test object, Fig. 12.

Sound reflections in the audio range are called echoes (think of the yodeler in the mountains). Therefore why should we
not use this short appropriate term for the reflection of an ultrasonic pulse? Thus the name of the method came into being
which is applied in most areas of application for material testing with ultrasonics: the Pulse Echo Method, Fig. 13.

Fig. 12 The priciple of time of

flight measurement Fig. 13 Block diagram: Pulse Echo Method

The time measurement starts with the electrical transmission pulse, the initial pulse. This is an extremely short electrical
discharge which triggers a sound pulse at the probe crystal. This pulse travels through the material and is reflected by a
discontinuity or the opposing wall and returns back to the probe. The received oscillations are converted into an electrical
pulse which stops the time measurement. The distance to the reflector can now be instantly determined by the following
formula:

s = sound path [mm]

c = sound velocity
[km/s]
t = time of flight [ms)
 Fig. 14 Ultrasonic Testing in practice Fig. 15 The Display scale

If the time of flight is graphically displayed then we are not far from the universal Ultrasonic Flaw Detector, Fig. 14. In
order to evaluate the visual signals (echoes) on the screen there is a grid on the inside of the CRT. The exchangeable
attachment scale, which has a horizontal scale with 10 graduations is called the display scale, Fig. 15. Using this scale,
the ultrasonic operator is able to measure echoes on the display.
How is this done? As already stated, the electrical transmission pulse triggers the sound pulse at the probe crystal. At the
same time this voltage pulse is feed to the input of the amplifier so that the high voltage causes a vertical deflection of the
display sweep, this is called the initial pulse, Fig. 16a. With this initial pulse, the sweep starts in the lower left corner of the
display synchronous to the start of the sound pulse in the test object and moves along the base lineat a constant speed to
the right, Fig. 16b.
 Fig. 16a Initial pulse = Start Fig. 16b after 10 ms

The speed of the pulse is dependent on the material of the test object (sound velocity = material constant). The sweep
speed of the instrument's display can be varied within wide limits. Thus the speed of the display sweep can be exactly
matched to the sound velocity. In our example the electron beam reaches scale division 4 while the pulse is at the
opposing side of the test object, Fig. 17 a, then it will of course need the same time to return, i.e. the beam spot will be at
the 8th scale graduation, Fig. 17 b.
The part of the sound pulse, which is transmitted through the couplant and into the probe, generates a small electrical
reception signal at the crystal which, via the amplifier, causes vertical deflection of the beam spot, this is the backwall
echo Fig. 18.

Fig. 17a Beam spot at the 4th scale Fig. 17b Beam spot at the 8th scale Fig. 18 Backwall echo at the 8th scale
graduation graduation graduation
The deflection takes place quickly because the sound pulse is short, therefore can only trigger a short voltage pulse at the
probe crystal. The electron beam returns quickly back to the base line and continues to the right, whilst the largest part of
the sound pulse is reflected at the coupling surface and travels through the test object a second time. The display
indications can now be allocated into two measurement values:

1. Horizontal position.

2. left flank of the echo at the 8th scale graduation

3. Vertical amplitude:

4. 70% screen height

At the moment this does not tell us very much, however, later we will see that nearly all usable results which we obtain
from ultrasonic testing are based on these two readings. Let us take a look more closely at the current result: The high
initial pulse starts at the left in front of the scale zero point. The rising flank corresponds to the time at which the electrical
signal is on the crystal and starts the sound pulse. However, before it is fed to the surface of the test object it must travel
through the protection layer of the probe (probe delay). Although it is relatively thin, a short period of time is required.
The initial pulse is exactly shifted to the left by this period of time, Fig. 19a.

Fig. 19a Straight-beam probe: initial pulse delay Fig. 19b Angle-beam probe: initial pulse delay

With angle-beam probes the sound pulse in the probe must travel through a much longer delay path made of perspex
before it is transmitted into the test object. Depending on the type of probe, the initial pulse delay can be so large that it no
longer appears on the display, Fig. 19 b. We already explained the echo at the 8th scale graduation before: It is the pulse
reflected at the opposite wall of the test object, the backwall echo. Now it is not too difficult to guess how the display
changes when there is another reflector within the sound beam, e.g. a material separation: between the initial pulse and
the backwall echo another echo will appear, caused by partial reflection of the sound wave on a discontinuity, Fig. 20.
Such an echo is called an intermediate echo. It is easy to foresee the position changes of the intermediate echo on the
display if the reflector is at different depths. Fig. 21 a+b: the position of the intermediate echo on the display in relation to
the position of the backwall echo behaves the same as the distance of the discontinuity related to the total thickness of the
test object. We already know a method of determining the distance of an internal flaw; the ultrasonic tester speaks of
location of the discontinuity.

Fig. 20 Test object with discontinuity,

Fig. 21a Discontinuity in front of the Fig. 21b Discontinuity near the
display with flaw echo
backwall surface

Near resolution
So, what can we do when a small discontinuity is just below the surface of the test object, i.e. directly in front of the
probe? Can this discontinuity still be detected? The answer is no, because the intermediate echo is now within the initial
pulse, it is therefore covered by it. Probably there are also no further indications that there is a near-to-surface
discontinuity here, Fig. 22.

Fig. 22 A non-detectable near-to- Fig. 23 Shadowing of the backwall

surface discontinuity echo by a larger near-to-surface Fig. 24 Echo sequence of a near-
reflector to-surface discontinuity

Or do we perhaps have a clue which will lead us to the unseen intermediate echo (a near-to-surface discontinuity)? The
answer is yes, when the discontinuity is large enough and shadows a noticeable part of the sound beam so that the
backwall echo becomes smaller, Fig. 23. If the near-to-surface discontinuity is also smooth and parallel to the surface,
then there is an echo sequence which is more or less well formed because the pulses are reflected many times between
the surface and the discontinuity, Fig. 24.

Fig. 25 Dead zone: display, test object

In this case, the amplitudes of the echoes become smaller as the distance increases. The more dense the flat echoes
advance to the surface, the more the echoes of the echo sequence disappear into the initial pulse, this causes the echoes
to become even more dense. In such cases there is a limit to detection.
From everything, we see that the initial pulse is not welcome on the display, however it is a technical necessity: it limits
the detectability of near-to-surface discontinuities. Reflectors in the dead zone, the non-testable area immediately
beneath the surface, can no longer be detected, Fig. 25. The dead zone is dependent on the test setup, this means from
the probe and the test instrument. However, it can be minimized by suitable selection of the testing device.
The probe
Probes whose beams are normal to the surface are called straight-beam probes, Figs. 1a and 26. Most standard
straight-beam probes transmit and receive longitudinal waves (pressure waves). The oscillations of such a wave can be
described by compression and decompression of the atoms propagating through the material (gas, liquid and solid), Fig 27.

Fig. 26 Straight beam probe

Fig. 27 Longitudinal wave
There is a large selection of straight-beam probes in various sizes and range from frequencies of approximately 0.5 MHz
to 25 [Link] of over 10†m can be obtained thus enabling large test objects to be tested. The wide range enables
individual matching of probe characteristics to every test task, even under difficult testing conditions. We have already
mentioned a disadvantage of straight-beam probes which, under certain conditions, can be decisive: the poor recognition
of near-to-surface discontinuities due to the width of the initial pulse.
Probes whose beams enter at an angle are called angle-beam probes because they transmit and receive the sound
waves at an angle to the surface of the test object, Figs. 1b and 28. Most standard angle-beam probes transmit and
receive, due to technical reasons, transverse waves or shear waves. With a transverse wave the atoms or molecules
oscillate vertical to the wave's direction of propagation, Fig. 29, due to the fact that excitation is made by shear force
(transverse to the propagation's directive forces).

Fig. 28 Angel-beam probes

Fig. 29 Transverse wave
Transverse waves only occur in solid materials never in liquids or gases because these do not have a shear modulus and
therefore do not effect any shear forces. In addition to this, they propagate much slower than longitudinal waves in the
same material. There is no quick reply to the question about why angle-beam probes do not transmit longitudinal waves.
In this case a detailed examination is required.

Refraction and mode conversion

Inclined sound waves are almost exclusively generated so that they occur at an angle to the probe/test object interface,
Fig. 1b. This is simply achieved by cementing the element onto a wedge shaped delay path which is normally made of
perspex. If a longitudinal wave, at a fixed angle of incidence (the wedge angle), hits the perspex/steel interface then this
wave is firstly split-up into a reflected and a transmitted wave, Fig. 30a. Reflected waves obey the reflection law (angle
of incidence = angle of reflection) and transmitted waves the refraction law (Snell's law):

a = angle of incidence
b = angle of refraction
c 1 = sound velocity in medium 1
c 2 = sound velocity in medium 2

Fig. 30a Refraction and reflection without Fig. 30b Refraction and reflection with
 transverse waves transverse waves

Fig. 31 Evaluation: one echo - two

possible reflector locations

Moreover something strange happens: In addition transverse waves are created at the sound beam's point of impact, Fig.
30b. This happens with reflection as well as with refraction! Due to the fact that the transverse waves propagate at
around only half the sound velocity of longitudinal waves, other propagation directions are automatically produced due to
the refraction law, i.e. reflection and refraction angles.
If, with inclined scanning, this wave conversion is not taken into consideration, then location and evaluation of
discontinuities is not possible in many cases, even detection becomes questionable because one echo on the display leads
to two different reflector locations depending on whether one takes longitudinal waves or transverse waves as a basis,
Fig.31.
But where is the discontinuity? A clear answer can only be given by the operator when one of the wave modes does not
occur. That is undoubtedly the precondition for the universal application of angle-beam probes. This precondition can be
derived from the refraction law: firstly we recognize that the refraction angle of longitudinal waves is for steel
approximately twice as large as that of the transverse waves, Fig. 30b.
With further enlargement of the angle of incidence the angle of refraction balso increases until finally, at an angle of
incidence of a = 27.5° (1st critical angle) , the longitudinal wave, with an angle b of 90°, is refracted. This means that it
runs along the interface whilst the transverse wave is still transmitted into the test object, Fig 32a.
 Fig. 32b Refraction: transverse wave under 45°

Fig. 32a Refraction: 1st critical angle

Our precondition for clear reflector evaluation is fulfilled: now only one sound wave occurs in the test object, this is the
transverse wave with a refraction angle of 33.3° (for perspex/steel). With further enlargement of the angle of incidence
various refraction angles of the transverse wave (= beam angle) can be set, e.g. exactly 45°, Fig. 32 b. Finally, with an
angle of incidence of about 57° (2nd critical angle) , the transverse wave, with an angle of 90°, is refracted and
propagates along the surface of the test object, it then becomes a surface wave, Fig. 32 c.
That is the limit over which no more sound waves are transmitted into the test object. Total reflectionstarts from here,
Fig. 32d. The area in which an angle of incidence is present between the 1st and 2nd critical angle (27.5° - 57°) gives us
a clear evaluable sound wave in the test object (made of steel), namely the transverse wave between 33.3° and 90°, Fig.
33.

Fig. 33 Usable range for angle-beam

Fig. 32c Refraction: 2nd critical probes in steel
angle, surface wave Fig. 32d Total reflection

Characteristics of angle-beam probes

Due to the fact that steel is tested in most applications, the angle-beam probes are designed so that suitable angles of
incidence are produced in steel. To achieve clear evaluation there are angle-beam probes with angles of 35°, 45°, 60°,
70°, 80° and 90° (surface waves), Fig. 33.
Angles of 45°, 60° and 70° are mostly used. With regard to frequency, angle-beam probes do not have such a wide
selection as straight-beam probes. This is primarily due to the fact that high frequency transverse waves in non-alloyed
fine grain steels are subjected to high attenuation. As the sound energy of the wavestravels through the material it is so
strongly absorbed and scattered that only relatively small test objects can be tested with sufficient sensitivity.
If discontinuities have to be detected over larger distances (in thicker test objects) then angle-beam probes with larger
crystals and lower frequencies are to be used; e.g. a reflector with a size of 2 mm in low alloyed fine grain steel with a 2
MHz angle-beam probe with a large crystal can be detected up to a distance of 700 mm. The near resolution of angle-
beam probes is often better than with straight-beam probes because the initial pulse is shifted far to the left due to the
relatively large perspex delay path. The falling flank of the initial pulse could sometimes still cover near-to-surface
discontinuities. Figs. 34a+b show, when using an angle-beam probe, how a near-to-surface drilled hole (1 mm deep) can
be reliably detected.

Fig. 34a Scanning a 1 mm transverse hole at a

depth of 1 mm Fig. 34b Detection of a hole with a MWB70-4E

The TR probe

Fig. 35 TR probe: section

If you want to obtain a similarly good near resolution with straight-beam scanning you should use a TR probe, Fig. 35.
This technique uses two crystal elements which are acoustically and electrically separated from each other in the same
housing. In addition to this, both elements are stuck to a relatively long delay path (made of perspex) and are slightly
inclined towards each other. Connection of the TR probe on the instrument is made in the TR or dual mode, i.e. one
element is connected to the transmitter and the other with the input of the receiver amplifier. The initial pulse is positioned
far left of the display due to the long delay path, Fig. 36.
Multi-reflections within the delay path of the transmitter do not interfer because the transmitter element does not have
any reception function. Only when the sound pulses come out of the test object and into the receiver element of the TR
probe do evaluatableechoes appear on the display.

Fig. 36 TR probe on the test object: CRT with Fig. 37 TR probe on the test object: discontinuity
backwall echo echo in the cross-talk echo

The electrical and acoustic separation is, due to technical reasons, not completely possible. Especially high gain
adjustments and rough test object surfaces cause portions of sound to be directly transferred from the transmitter to the
receiver. This generates an interference echo on the display which is called the cross-talk echo. The cross-talk echo
can exactly cover the near-surface area of the test object and once again there is a loss in detection sensitivity, especially
of small discontinuities. However, most cross-talk echoes are so small, or even negligible, that they can be clearly
distinguished from possible discontinuity echoes, Fig. 37.

Fig. 38 Wall thickness measurement with

a digital thickness gauge in practice

TR probes are therefore ideally suited for the detection of near-to-surface discontinuities and for thickness measurements
on thin test objects. The TR probe reacts considerably less sensitive to coupling variations which may be caused by rough
or curved material surfaces. This characteristic explains why TR probes play a valuable part in the chemical and energy
generating industries: they are ideal for testing all types of tubes and containers, for the detection of discontinuities in tube
walls, and for measurements of inside corrosion and remaining wall thicknesses. Special high temperature probes are
even able to measure the wall thickness on test object surfaces up to about 550°C so that installations can be tested
during operation.
5. Locating discontinuities
Calibration of the instrument
The location of a discontinuity can be instantly determined using its echo if the instrument is correctly calibrated.
Calibration means, linear display, from the zero point on the scale, of a certain distance range of the object to be tested.
The zero point on the scale corresponds to the surface of the test object and the 10th scale graduation the maximum
distance, e.g. 100 mm steel, 10 mm aluminum, 25 mm brass etc. When specifying the calibration rangethe naming of
the material is also important because the displayed distance of the echo, sound path s, is always deduced from the time
of flight t of the pulse and the sound velocity c according to the equation:

s = sound path [mm]

c = sound velocity [km/s]
t = transit time [ms]

Fig. 39 USK 7: Backwall echo sequence with

a straight-beam probe

This relationship is not unimportant for the ultrasonic operator but it is not required for the sequence of calibration. The
rule simply says: Use a work piece of the same material as the test object whose dimensions are known. By coupling the
probe onto an object of known thickness t an echo sequence appears on the display, Fig. 39. The associated sound paths
correspond logically to the paths being travelled in the test object, for example with a straight-beam probe it is the multiple
of the test object's thickness t, therefore:
○ 1st Echo = t,

○ 2nd Echo = 2t,

3rd Echo = 3t, etc.

We must now adjust 2 of these echoes on the corresponding scale graduation to the required calibration range. The
instrument is then calibrated, i.e. by reading off the scale position T the sound path s (distance) of the associated reflector
can be determined (location of reflectors, wall thickness measurement).

Calibration with a straight-beam probe

The reference piece used for calibration is called the Calibration Block, or Standard Calibration Block, if the block
used is standardized. The Standard Calibration Block 1, also simply referred to as V1 block (according to BS 2704 -
A2), has a thickness of exactly 25 mm and is made of low-alloyed fine grained steel so that it can be used for nearly all
types of calibration when similar steels are to be tested.
Example 1: Calibration range 100 mm steel (longitudinal waves)

Fig. 40 Calibration range: 0-10mm

The 10 scale graduations on the horizontal display scale are to have a range of 0 to 100†mm steel, Fig. 40. One scale
graduation therefore corresponds to 10 mm in the test object. We say: the scale factor k (display scale) is 10 mm per
scale graduation. We couple the straight-beam probe to the V1 block (laying flatwise), Fig. 39. The backwall echo
sequence now comes from the 25 mm steel path. The allocation of sound paths si to the corresponding scale positions
Tiiscarried out using the calibration table:

Echo-No Sound path si Scale factor k Skalen-position Ti

i [mm] [mm/scalegrad.] [scale grad.]

1 25 10 2.5

2 50 10 5.0

3 75 10 7.5

4 100 10 10.0

The corresponding scale position Ti is calculated by using the formula:

si = sound path of umpteenth echoes

Ti = scale position of the umpteenth echo
k= scale factor
 Fig. 41 USK 7: Calibration in the 100 mm range
Fig. 42 USK 7 D: Consideration of the probe
delay

The exact adjustment of echoes from the calibration block, as in Fig. 41, is made with analog ultrasonic flaw detectors
using the controls pulse shift (or delay) as well as coarse and fine ranges. In doing this, the adjustments must be
alternately carried out at these points until the echo flanks are at the correct scale positions. With modern digital
instruments the calibration range of 100 mm and the sound velocity of 5920 m/s are firstly entered. After coupling the
probe to the calibration block, the function delay or probe delay is changed until the echoes are correctly positioned, Fig.
42.

Example 2: Calibration range of 250 mm in aluminum

10 scale graduations correspond to 250 mm in aluminum: k = 25 mm/graduation. We couple the straight-beam probe to an
aluminumtest block which is 80 mm thick, i.e. a backwall echo sequence is produced from this thickness (t = 80 mm), Fig.
43.
The calibration table now looks like this:

Echo-No Sound path si Scale factor k Skalen-position Ti

i [mm] [mm/scalegrad.] [scale grad.]

1 80 25 3.2

2 160 25 6.4

3 240 25 9.6

Exact reflector location is only possible after correct calibration of a test instrument. The ultrasonic operator moves the
probe over the test object. In a normal case, i.e. when a discontinuity does not exist, only the initial pulse and the backwall
echo are visible on the display. As soon as a discontinuity is within the area of the sound beam, an additional echo appears
between the initial pulse and the backwall echo, Fig. 44, e.g. an echo at scale graduation 1.4. With calibration in the 250
mm range the distance to the reflector s is therefore 1.4 x 25 = 35 mm.
 Fig. 43 USK 7 D: Calibration of a 250 mm
range with an 80 mm aluminum path Fig. 44 USK 7 D: Sound path measurement.

Calibration with a TR probe

For technical reasons, the calibration with a TR probe can only be made to a certain extent using a backwall echo
sequence from a comparison object. Due to the slight angular beaming, Fig. 35, transverse waves occur with the TR
probe which cause strong interference behind the 1st backwall echo so that the 2nd backwallecho is often unable to be
identified. Therefore, a stepped calibration block is used for the adjustment of both echoes, alternately going between two
steps (2 point calibration).
Example 3: Calibration range for 10 mm steel
Step block VW (steel: 1 - 8 mm). The 3 mm and 6 mm steps should be used for calibration. The step selection depends
on the depth range of the expected reflectors. Here the echo from 3 mm must be adjusted to the 3rd scale graduation and
the echo from 6 mm to scale graduation 6, Fig. 45a+b.

a) Firstly, we couple the TR probe to the 3†mm step and use the delay
control for adjusting the echo flank to the 3rd scale graduation.

b) Now we couple the probe to the 6 mm step and bring the echo to the
6th scale graduation with the range control.

c) Steps a) and b) are alternately repeated until both echo flanks are
exactly on the 3rd and 6th scale graduations, Fig. 45a+b.

The main application of TR probes are wall thickness measurements, but they are also suitable for the detection of near-
to-surface discontinuities, Fig. 46a+b.
 Fig. 45a The two positions (3 mm and 6 mm step) of
the TR probe on the stepped calibration block VW

Fig. 46a Probe DA 312 on a speciemen with a side

drilled hole in a depth of 1 mm.

Fig. 45b Calibration echo at the 3rd graduation (top)

Calibration echo at the 6th graduation (bottom)

Fig. 46 b Detection of the drill hole from Fig. 46 a

Calibration with an angle-beam probe

For calibration of the test instrument with an angle-beam probe the standard calibration block 1, Fig. 47a, and the
calibration block V2 (according to BS 2704 - A4), Fig. 47b, are almost exclusively used because no backwall echo
sequence is received due to the angular beaming from a plane-parallel calibration block.

Fig. 48 Different probe angels at V1 block

 Fig. 49a Sound path in the V1 block without angle
reflection

Fig. 47a WB 60-2E on Calibration Block 1

Fig. 49b Sound path in the V1 block with angle

reflection.

Fig. 47b MWB 45-4E on Calibration Block 2

The advantage with echoes from the circle segment of the calibration block is that the same sound path is always given
independent of the probe angle, Fig. 48. When the angle-beam probe is exactly coupled in the center of the circle
segment, a first echo is exactly received from 100 mm out of V1 block. According to the reflection law, the sound waves
coming out of the arc are reflected away from the coupling surface to the back, this means away from the arc, Fig. 49a.
A second echo out of the arc, needed for the calibration sequence, cannot therefore be produced. For this, there are two
saw cuts made in the center of the quarter circle: in the edges, which these saw cuts form with the surfaces, the sound
waves are reflected back within themselves due to double reflection (angle reflection effect)so that they go back to the
arc, Fig. 49b.
Because the radius of the circle segment is exactly 100 mm we will regularly receive an echo sequence with distances of
100 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm etc. with which we are able to carry out calibration of the test instrument the same way as the
straight-beam probe. Fig. 50 shows calibration of the 250 mm range.
 Fig. 50 Range: 250 mm with a WB 60-2 on V1
block Fig. 51a Path of a sound wave in a V2 block, radius
50 mm

For the miniature angle-beam probe one uses the considerably smaller and lighter Standard Calibration Block 2 (V2
block). This has, as opposed to the V1 block, two circle segments with a common center point, however it does not have
saw cuts. The required echo sequence is produced here by the alternating reflection of the sound waves, Fig. 51a+b.

Fig. 51b Path of a sound wave in a V2 block, radius Fig. 52 Range: 100 mm calibrated on V2, radius 25
25 mm mm.

The corresponding echo sequence is produced according to whether the probe beams into the 25 mm radius or the 50 mm
radius. No echoes appear with sound paths by which the sound pulses from the "wrong" direction meet at the center point
because these pulses are absorbed by the front damping element of the probe. Fig. 52 shows calibration of the 100 mm
range by scanning into the 25 mm radius of Standard Calibration Block V2.
Locating reflectors with an angle-beam probe
 Fig. 53 Scanning a reflector using an angle beam
probe

The echo of a discontinuity on the instrument display does not now give us any direct information about its position in the
material. The only available information for determination of the reflector position is the scale position and therefore the
sound path s, this means the distance of the discontinuity from the index point(sound exit point) of the probe, Fig. 53.
The mathematics of the right-angled triangle helps us to evaluate the Surface Distance and the Depth of a reflector
which are both important for the ultrasonic test, Fig. 54a. We therefore now have the possibility to instantly mark a
detected flaw's position on the surface of the test object by measurement of the surface distance from the sound exit
point and to give the depth. For practical reasons, the reduced surface distance is used because this is measured from
the front edge of the probe. The difference between the surface distance and the reduced surface distance corresponds
to the x-value of the probe, this is the distance of the sound exit point to the front edge of the probe, Fig. 54b.

Fig. 54a The flaw triangle Fig. 54b Reduced surface distances and x-value
 Fig. 55 USN 50: A hole being scanned with the
probe MWB 60-4E

With ultrasonic instruments having digital echo evaluation these calculations are naturally carried out by an integrated
microprocessor and immediately displayed so that the operator does not need to make any more time-consuming
calculations, Fig. 55. This is of great help with weld testing because with the calculation of the flaw depth an additional
factor must be taken into account, namely: whether the sound pulses were reflected from the opposing wall. If this is the
case then an apparent depth of the reflector is produced by using the depth formula which is greater than the thickness
T of the test object. The ultrasonic operator must acertain whether a reflection comes from the opposite wall and then
proceed with calculating the reflector depth, Fig. 56b.

Fig. 56b The real reflector depth after sound

Fig. 56a The apparent depth reflection

Locating reflectors with an angle-beam probe

The echo of a discontinuity on the instrument display does not now give us any direct information about its position in the
material. The only available information for determination of the reflector position is the scale position and therefore the
sound path s, this means the distance of the discontinuity from the index point(sound exit point) of the probe, Fig. 53.
The mathematics of the right-angled triangle helps us to evaluate the Surface Distance and the Depth of a reflector
which are both important for the ultrasonic test, Fig. 54a. We therefore now have the possibility to instantly mark a
detected flaw's position on the surface of the test object by measurement of the surface distance from the sound exit
point and to give the depth. For depth of the reflector is produced by using the depth formula which is greater than the
thickness T of the test object. The ultrasonic operator must acertain whether a reflection comes from the opposite wall
and then proceed with calculating the reflector depth, Fig. 56b.
Evaluation of discontinuities
Of course, a discontinuity is best evaluated when its size (extension) is known. The operator's wish to accurately know
the "real reflector size" is understandable therefore it is expected that annondestructive testing method, such as ultrasonic
testing, give this information. However, due to the fact that on the display only the echo can be interpreted, this means the
reflected sound coming from the discontinuity, it is very often difficult, and in some cases even impossible, to reliably
assert the size of the reflector. In fact, the echo height plays the decisive part when evaluating discontinuities during
manual Ultrasonic Testing.
Scanning method
In ultrasonic evaluation one is frequently able to come near to the true reflector size as long as the discontinuity is large
compared to the diameter of the sound field. The discontinuity then reflects the complete impacting energy back, Fig. 57.
By scanning the boundaries of the discontinuity, reliable information can be obtained about its extension. The ultrasonic
operator normally observes the height of the discontinuity echo. The probe position on the test object at which the echo
drops by exactly half indicates that the discontinuity is only being hit by half the sound beam, Fig. 58a.

Fig. 58a Straight beam probe on the reflector boundry

Fig. 57 A large reflector in the sound beam Fig. 58b Top view with reflector for extension.

This means that the acoustic axis is exactly on the boundary of the discontinuity. The probe position is marked and the
operator determines further boundry points until a contour of the discontinuity is formed by joining the marked points
together, Fig. 58b. Location of the reflector boundry becomes more exact the smaller the diameter of the sound beam is
at the reflector position. Therefore, if the reflector extension is to be exactly measured it is recommended that a probe be
selected which has its focal point at the same distance as the reflector. TR probes are especially suited which have a
hose-shaped sound beam with a small diameter (1 - 3 mm) at their most sensitive depth range.
Evaluation of small discontinuities: The DGS method

A reflector which is completely contained within the sound beam is regarded as a small reflector. If such a reflector is
evaluated by scanning then it is not the size of the reflector which is obtained as a result but the diameter of the sound
beam! Therefore, the scanning method is not practical in this case. We have noticed previously that the height of a
reflector echo will become greater the larger the sound beam area is which covers the reflector. This feasible behaviour
can be used on small reflectors: their echo heights increase with their areas, Fig. 59.

Fig. 59
Reflectors with different areas and their echoes

Fig. 60 Reflectors at different depths and

 their echoes

Under optimal conditions, e.g. drill holes with flat bottoms and at equal depths, this law can be confirmed:

The echo heights are proportional to

their area or The echo heights are
proportional to the square of their
diameter.

Example: The flat-bottom hole with a diameter of 2 mm has an echo which is 4 times that of a 1 mm flat-bottom hole
because the area has quadrupled. However, if the echoes from two drill holes at different depths are compared then an
additional distance dependence of the echo heights is established, Fig. 60.
With accurate tests using flat-bottom holes at different depths a simple law can be found, at least in the far field of the
applied sound beam:

The echo heights reduce to the

square of their distance

This does not normally apply to the near-field of the sound beam! Here, the test results show that the echo heights within
the focus reach their highest amplitude and are reduced again at shorter distances, Fig. 61.

Fig. 61 Distance amplitude curve of a 2 mm - disk Fig. 62 Evaluation of a discontinuity (F) using
reflector evaluation curves.

If such curves are put on transparent scales having the CRT format then we immediately have the possibility to
comparatively evaluate echoes from unknown reflectors and those from natural reflectors, i.e. the echo height of the
discontinuity is compared to that of a circular disk. The discontinuity in Fig. 62 reflects the sound waves the same as a
circular disk having a diameter of 4 mm. Due to the fact that we can only assess the sound reflected from the
discontinuities we must of course not equate the diameter of 4 mm with the "true size" of the discontinuity. We therefore
refer to them as anequivalent disk-shaped reflector or as equivalent reflector size (ERS) . The equivalent reflector
size only corresponds to the true reflector size of a discontinuity in an ideal case which is when it is circular and exactly
hit vertical to the acoustic axis.
In practise this almost never occurs which means that the true size of a discontinuity is normally larger than the
equivalent reflector size. A law for this cannot be derived because the echo height is strongly dependent on the
characteristics of the discontinuity, this means its geometry, orientation to the sound beam and the surface quality. For
example, a pore (spherically shaped gas inclusion) with a diameter of 2 mm has an equivalent reflector size of 1 mm; an
angled flat reflector 5 mm long gives, according to orientation, a result of ERS 0 (not detectable) to perhaps ERS 2.
This uncertainty in the evaluation of the discontinuity is however neutralized when other possibilities and techniques in
ultrasonic testing are used to inspect detected discontinuities closer. An experienced ultrasonic operator can, without
additional expense, accurately give information about the discontinuity which he has detected. Scanning the discontinuity
from different directions, assessing the echo shape and the behavior of the display when moving the probe (echo
dynamics) are just a few techniques which can be successfully applied.
Despite the remaining uncertainty with evaluation of natural discontinuities the above method of discontinuity evaluation is
applied in many countries due to the fact that the method is based on well proven laws in the sound field. It is therefore
reproducible, i.e. the evaluation results are independent of testing device and operator.
The socalled DGS scales or discontinuity evaluation can be obtained from the probe manufacturer for many probes and
various calibration ranges. DGS means that the scale is allocated an echo at the Distance, with correctly set Gain and
(equivalent reflector) Size. However, the modern version of the DGS scale would need some explanation because it was
developed to fulfill the requirements of the most common specificationsin practical testing: If, on a certain test object
whose purpose and therefore stress values are known, an ultrasonic test is to be carried out then firstly, if necessary with
destructive testing, it should be established how large the permitted material flaw should be. Of course, the position of
such a flaw in the material and its rate of occurance play a part.
If a permitted flaw size has been determined then this size is multiplied with the safety factor which, amongst others, also
takes the evaluation uncertainty of the ultrasonic test into account. The corresponding echo amplitude curve for this size
is now of importance for the ultrasonic test. The ultrasonic operator scans the test object with the probe and only needs to
record the indications which exceed this recording curve, Fig. 63.

Fig. 64 Discontinuity
Fig. 63 DGS scale for the probe evaluation with a DGS
B 4 S. scale

Consequently, only one curve is necessary for the evaluation. Due to the fact that, depending on the application, different
recording limits occur, it must be possible to allocate other equivalent reflector sizes to this curve. This allocation is
shown by a table positioned at the top right of the scale: starting from a defined default setting of the instrument, the
auxiliary gain is taken from the table which belongs to the required recording value and added to the gain controls. If the
correct range calibra tion has been made then test object scanning can now begin. When an indication from the test
object exceeds the recording curve then this result is to be recorded in writing and evaluated. If required, the test
instructionsprovide the following measures: rejection, repair or further tests for exact assessment of the discontinuity
(diagnosis) .
Fig. 64 shows testing of a forged part. The recording curve corresponds to Equivalent Reflector Size 3. The detected
discontinuity, at a depth of 110 mm, exceeds the curve, i.e. all reflector data must now be recorded into a predetermined
form.
Sound attenuation
In addition to the laws which establish the behaviour of disk shaped reflectors within the sound beam of a probe
(distance and size laws) another effect can be observed: The sound attenuation. The sound attenuation is caused by
the structure of the test object but is also strongly dependent on the frequency and the wave mode of the applied probe.
Only when these effects are known can they be considered by the discontinuity evaluation. However, the evaluation
becomes more difficult, timeconsuming and more unreliable so that DGS evaluation can be burdened with tolerances
which are too great.
The reference block method
These uncertainties in evaluation can be reduced when there is a socalled reference block available which is made of
the same material as the object to be tested and which also contains artificial reflectors whose echoes can be directly
compared to the discontinuity echoes from the test object. The application of the reference block method is, in practise,
made in two different ways:
Comparison of echo amplitudes
The test object is tested with a high gain setting by which the smallest detectable reflector is displayed. An echo
indication is peaked, i.e. the maximum echo indication is achieved by careful movement of the probe and the echo peak
set by adjustment of the gain to a predetermined height, e.g. 80% CRT screen height (reference height) , Fig. 65.

Fig. 67 References block:

Fig. 65 Test object with a flaw: Fig. 66 Reference block: reference echo to reference
echo at 80% (reference height) reference echo at 30%. height

Using the same settings, the reflector from the reference block is scanned which is approximately positioned at the same
distance as the discontinuity, Fig. 66. The quantative unit for evaluation is now the gain change of the ultrasonic
instrument which is necessary to set the reference echo to the reference height, Fig. 67.
Result: The discontinuity echo is 8 dB higher than the reference echo because the gain must be increased by 8 dB (from
34 dB to 42 dB).
The recording limit normally corresponds to the echo height of the reference reflector whose size is to be determined, the
same as the DGS method, before the ultrasonic test.
Distance amplitude curve
All reflectors in the reference block are scanned before the test, their maximum echo heights marked on the attachment
scale of the display and joined by a curve, Fig. 68.
The curve produced is called the Distance Amplitude Curve, or DAC for short. When a discontinuity echo appears, an
immediate assessment can be made whether or not the discontinuity echo exceeds the DAC. In addition to this a
determination is made, by a corresponding gain change, to see by how many dBs an echo exceeds the curve. This
excess recording echo height (EREH) is our reproducible measure for the evaluation and reporting of the
discontinuity.
The advantages of the reference block method with a DAC are:
1. that it is no longer necessary to compare each discontinuity echo with the corresponding reference
echo from the reference block but to directly make the evaluation with the DAC.

2. that the heavy reference block need not be transported to the testing location.

3. that the recording of a DAC for certain applications is only required once because the curve is
documented on a transparency or in the memory of a modern ultrasonic test instrument.

By recording the curve using reflectors in a test object comparable to the work piece, this curve contains all the
influences in the test object (distance law, sound attenuation, surface losses). Corresponding corrections are therefore not
necessary. Regarding the evaluation results, we must understand here that the effect of the discontinuity (geometry,
orientation and surface quality) is not taken a great deal into account the same as the DGS method. Therefore, the result
of a discontinuity evaluation with the reference block method has the same uncertainty as the DGS method.
The preference regarding which method to use is subjective. The corresponding national test specifications normally state
the test method to be used so that the operator is not able to make his own decision. If no data is available, the test
situation should be analyzedin order to decide which method be best used:
Firstly, it must be established whether a reference block exists which corresponds to the test object. If yes, then the test
can be carried out simply and reproducibly with the reference block method. If no reference block is available then the
DGS method can be used, or a reference block must be subsequently produced comparable to the test object.
However, in many cases the DGS method can be used without difficulty, namely when the test object is made of low
alloy steel, has a simple geometry, a low sound attenuation and an even surface quality. The test should be carried out
with a narrow band standard probe with a frequency between 1 MHz and 6 MHz for which there is a DGS diagram or a
DGS scale.
The new computer controlled instruments normally support the program controlled recording of DACs. With the USD 10
the recorded DAC is automatically converted to a horizontal line. This is known as time corrected gain (TCG) , Fig.
69.
The recording curve is therefore an horizontal line so that the evaluation can be visually and acoustically supported using
a monitor gate (flaw alarm), Fig. 70a-c. At the same time for each echo, the excess recording echo height is displayed
in dB (DBR value in the measurement line of the USD 10) in addition to the data for discontinuity location.

Fig. 70a Weld testing with the USD Fig. 70 b A discontinuity to be Fig. 70c A discontinuity not to be
10 recorded, DBR 14,4 dB recorded; DBR -9.2 dB.

Fig. 68 Reference block wiht side drilled

holes and resulting echoes
 Fig. 69 DAC of the reference echoes
(top) and with time corrected gain
(bottom).

Of course, the recorded curves, including the complete instrument settings, can be stored. It is therefore guaranteed that
any later tests can be carried out with the same settings. By storing the instrument settings, including the active A-Scans
with the discontinuity echo, the operator has all the data available for producing a test report at any time.

Documentation
The higher the value of a test object or the greater the importance of a component with regard to the safety requirements
of the complete object, e.g. an aircraft bolt, then the more important the required ultrasonic documentation becomes
(product liability) . On the one hand this documentation proves that the test was completely and correctly carried out,
and on the other hand enables the test to be repeated at any time under the same conditions (test reproducibilty).
The documentation, the test report of an ultrasonic test, roughly consists of 3 parts:

a. Data concerning the test object and the test method.

b. Data concerning the testing device.

c. Results of the test:

Typical tabular list of all detected and evaluated discontinuities, refer to the example report, if necessary, a drawing of the
test object with flaw positions. The operator must record data during the test, especially data of the detected discontinuity.
Creation of the actual report is normally made later in the office. The recordings must be frequently supplemented by
calculations before the operator transfers them into the report. The creation of a test report very often takes as much
time as the actual test itself and should be taken into account when determining test expenditure. Even when working
conscientiously, transfer or calculation errors cannot be excluded, especially with large amounts of data.
 Fig. 71 USD 10:
My Choice table with flaw data.

Modern ultrasonic instruments with memory and data transfer functions greatly improve recording of the adjustment data
and test results during the test as well as creation of the test report and therefore ease the operator of a burden, who can
then concentrate on the test task. By directly storing of all discontinuity data in the instrument, transfer errors can be
excluded, position coordinates of the detected discontinuities are entered into the instrument and are therefore contained
in the stored data set along with the A-Scan. If required, the documentation can be printed at the test location, Fig. 71.
Individual documentation matched to the test task is carried out with a PC. The possibilities for measurement data
processing are as versatile as the programs offered on the market. In order to make the application of data
communication with a digital ultrasonic instrument flexible, a utility program is very often used. This is normally a program
which is easy to operate and enables reliable data transfer between PC and test instrument.
In addition to this, all stored instrument settings (= Data set) , the corresponding adjustment parameters (= Function
lists), the display contents (= A-Scans) as well as the individual parameters can be recalled and stored on a floppy disk
or hard disk. Function lists are filed into an ASCII format, A-Scans and LCD menus in normal graphic formats (PCX,
IMG). A data set corresponds to a complete instrument adjustment and is saved in a hexadecimal format. This
guarantees that by return transfer of the data set to the test instrument exactly the same instrument settings are available.
The function lists and graphics are now available to the operator for further use.
Now he is able to use his own program (word processing, database) for individual design of his own test documentation.
Instrument settings and display graphics are simply read into his program. This routine work is easily made by a so called
Macro. A macro is nothing more than a list of commands belonging to the user program being used and runs
automatically thus creating the required documentation. The names of the files to be processed are requested, in dialog,
by the operator.
The following report is an example of documentation automatically produced for a weld test. The test was made with the
USK 7 D and the indications from the discontinuities stored in the instrument. Finally, all data (function lists and A-Scans)
were stored on a disk using the program UltraDoc. The test report was made with a macro from the program
WordPerfect 5.1:
Ultrasonic test report
(example referring to AD-Merkblatt HP 5/3)

Manufacturer SLV-Duisburg Weld test Specimen No. 1

Weld type: V Weld preparation: 30°

Welding method: Covered electrode Parent material: ST 52

Added material: unknown Test volume: Weld + HAZ

 Test surface: 1,2 (see drawing) Test surface evenly rough
condition:

Weld thickness: 25 mm Weld width 32 mm

Weld length 200 mm Reference points: see drawing

Misc.: Evaluation with DGS

scale

Test instrument: USK 7 D Calibration range: 200 mm

Sensitivity setting: ERS 3 + 6 dB Corrections: + 14 dB transfer

Probe: MWB 70 4E Frequency: loss
4 MHz

Angle of incidence: 70° Scanning position: see drawing

Standard Calibration V2 Reference block: R25/C

block:

Couplant: ZG 5 Pre-test: nothing found

Test class: b Recording threshold: ERS 3

Indications to be recorded:

No. Sec. l1 lmax l2 t dt d Dir dB Findings / remarks

1 1 0 20 30 0 4 21 2 + 18 Root crack

2 1 0 30 32 -1 3 23 1 +6 Root crack

3 1 166 191 201 0 2 21 2 +6 Root crack

4 1 163 168 201 -1 2 22 1 +2 Root crack

5 1 - 126 - 2 - 19 1 -8 Pore/small inclusion near

edge

6 1 - 50 - 0 - 22 6 -6 Transverse crack

Test location: Cologne Date: 12.3.1991

Test result: Repair necessary

Operator: J. Smith Supervisor: H. Müller

 Signature:

Diagnosis of indications (outlook)

As opposed to the tasks of an ultrasonic operator, dealt with up until now, the diagnosis of indications is not only based on
measured ascertainable parameters. The interpretation of the echo is an additional task. This interpretation normally
requires many years of practical experience including carrying out comparsion tests of ultrasonic findings with the results
of a destructive test on a test object which is no longer to be used. Methods for diagnosis of indications as well as signal
analysis techniques using auxiliary equipment are outside the bounds of this introduction to ultrasonic testing. For this,
there is a range of literature available as well as many special publications which we would like to point out to the reader.

Radiographic Testing Procedure

This content provides you with a example Radiographic Testing Procedure. This is a general and sample RT procedure
and you need to modify it to meet your project specifications.

SCOPE:
This Procedure describes the general requirements for radiography examination (RT) according to related approved weld
map for the metallic welding and casting as may be required by the specification or under which component is being
designed and manufactured.

This radiographic testing procedure provides the material, equipment, calibration, personnel qualification, examination
process, evaluation, records and acceptance standards forXXXProject which will be fabricated in YYY.

SURFACE CONDITION

According to T.222.2, the weld ripples or weld surface irregularities on the both the inside (where accessible) and out side
shall be removed by any suitable process to such a degree that the resulting radiographic testing image due to any surface
irregularities cannot mask or be confused with the image of any discontinuity. the finished surface of all butt welded joints
mat be flush with the base material or may have reasonably uniform crowns, with reinforcement not to exceed that
specified in the referencing code section.

RADIATION SOURCE

X-Radiation:

The radiography testing techniques shall demonstrate that the required radiography sensitivity has been obtained.
Maximum x-ray voltage is 300 KV.

Gamma radiation:

The recommended minimum thickness for which Radio-active isotopes may be used as follow:

Table – 3.2

Material Iridium192 Cobalt 60

Steel 0.75 in 1.50 in

Copper or high nickel 0.65 in 1.30 in

copper

Aluminum 2.50 in --

The maximum thickness for the use of radioactive isotopes is primarily dictated by exposure time, therefore; upper limits
are not shown. The minimum Recommended thickness limitation may be reduced when the radiography techniques are
used to demonstrate that the required radiographic testing sensitivity have been obtained, by purchaser approval.

RADIGRAPHIC FILMS

Any commercially available industrial radiography films may be used in accordance with SE 1815(ASTM) standard test
method for film system in industrial radiography. Radiography film shall be fine grain high definition, high contrast film
(Kodak type AA 400, FUJI 100 or AGFA D7).

SCREENS

Any commercially available intensifying screen, except those of the fluorescent type, may be used. Intensifying screen
for x-ray or Gama ray method divided in two categories: 1-front screen 2-back screen. Commonly lead screens use with
27 micron thickness. (Front screen)
PENETRAMETER (I.Q.I)

Penetrameters shall be either the whole type or the wire type and shall be manufactured and identified in accordance
with the requirements or alternatives allowed in SE 142 or SE 1025 (for whole type) and SE-747 (for wire type), and
appending. ASME V 2007 ED & ASME Sec VIII Div I ED 2007.

Penetrameters shall consist of those in table 233.1 for hole type and those in table 233.2 for wire type. (Wire type IQI
shall be used for welds.)

SELECTION OF PENETRAMETER (I.Q.I)

Material.

IQIs shall be selected from either the same alloy material group or grade as identified inSE-1025, or SE-747, as
applicable, or from an alloy material Group or grade with less radiation absorption than the material being radiographed.

Size.

The designated hole IQI or essential wire listed in Table T-276 provided an equivalent IQI sensitivity is maintained. See T-
[Link] be as specified in Table T-276. A thinner or thicker hole-type IQI may be substituted for any section thickness

(a) Welds With Reinforcements. The thickness on which the IQI is based is the nominal single-wall thickness plus the
estimated weld reinforcement not to exceed the maximum permitted by the referencing Code Section. Backing rings or
strips shall not be considered as part of the thickness in IQI selection. The actual measurement of the weld reinforcement
is not required.

(b) Welds Without Reinforcements. The thickness on which the IQI is based is the nominal single-wall thickness. Backing
rings or strips shall not be considered as part of the weld thickness in IQI selection.

Welds Joining Dissimilar Materials or Welds with Dissimilar Filler Metal.

When the weld metal is of an alloy group or grade that has a radiation attenuation that differs from the base material, the
IQI material selection shall be based on the weld metal and be in accordance with T-276.1. When the density limits of T-
282.2 cannot be met with one IQI and the exceptional density area is at the interface of the weld metal and the base
metal, the material selection for the additional IQIs shall be based on the base material and is in accordance with T-276.1
PLACEMENT OF RADIOGRAPHIC TESTING PENETRAMETER (I.Q.I)

Source side penetrameters:

The penetrameters shall be placed on the source side of the part being examined, except for the condition described in
chapter 8.2.

film side penetrameters:

Sensitivity:

The sensitivity required using wire type IQI shall be 2%.

Sensitivity:(Diameter of thinnest wire visible on radiograph / Part thickness at IQI location) x

100

Where inaccessibility prevents hand placing the penetrameter (s) on the source side, it shall be placed on the film side in
contact with the part being examined. A lead letter “F” shall be placed adjacent to or on the penetrameter (s).

NUMBER OF PENETRAMETER (I.Q.I)

When one or more film holders are used for an exposure, ate least one penetrameter imager shall appear on each
radiograph.

If the requirements of T-282 are met by using more than onepenetrameter, one shall be representative of the lightest area
of interest and the other the darkest area of interest.

The intervening densities, on the radiograph, shall be considered as having acceptable density.

Number of I.Q.I shall be according to ASME SEC V.T.277.2.

RADIOGRAPHIC TESTING TECHNIQUE

A single-wall exposure technique shall be used for radiography whenever practical. When it is not practical to use a
single-wall radiographic testing technique, a double-wall technique shall be used. An adequate number of exposures shall
be made to demonstrate that the required coverage has been obtained.

Single-Wall Technique.

In the single-wall radiographic testing technique, the radiation passes through only one wall of the weld (material), which
is viewed for acceptance on the radiograph.

Double-Wall Technique.

When it is not practical to use a single-wall technique, one of the following double-wall techniques shall be used.

(a) Single-Wall Viewing. For materials and for welds in components, a technique may be used in which the radiation
passes through two walls and only the weld (material) on the film-side wall is viewed for acceptance on the radiograph.
When complete coverage is required for circumferential welds (materials), a minimum of three exposures taken 120 deg
to each other shall be made.

(b) Double-Wall Viewing. For materials and for welds in components ⁄ in. (89 mm) or less in nominal outside diameter, a
technique may be used in which the radiation passes through two walls and the weld (material) in both walls is viewed for
acceptance on the same radiograph .For double-wall viewing, only a source-side IQI shall be used. Care should be
exercised to ensure that the required geometricunsharpness is not exceeded. If the geometric unsharpnessrequirement
cannot be met, then single-wall viewing shall be used.

(1) For welds, the radiation beam may be offset from the plane of the weld at an angle sufficient to separate the images
of the source-side and film-side portions of the weld so that there is no overlap of the areas to be interpreted. When
complete coverage is required, a minimum of two exposures taken 90 deg to each other shall be made for each joint.

(2) As an alternative, the weld may be radio graphed with the radiation beam positioned so that the images of both walls
are superimposed. When complete coverage is required, a minimum of three exposures taken at either 60 deg or 120 deg
to each other shall be made for each joint.
SOURCE TO OBJECT AND OBJECT TO FILM DISTANCE (SOD & OFD)

According to geometric unsharpness formula (Ug = f *OFD/FOD) for minimizing the Ug value, OFD value shall be
minimizing therefore object to film distance shall be minimum.

Source to object distance (SOD) shall be set according radiographic technique, object shape and strength of
source.

RADIOGRAPHIC TESTING IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM

The method shall be used to produce permanent identification to the radiographies traceable to the contract, components,
welds or weld seams, or part numbers, as appropriate. This identification mark shall not obscure the area of interest.

RADIOGRAPHIC TESTING ACCEPTANCE STANDARD

Refer to ASME Sec VIII, Div. I

a) Butt welded joints surfaces shall be sufficiently free from coarse ripples ,grooves , overlaps and abrupt ridges and
valleys to permit proper interpretation of radiographic and the required non-destructive examinations.

If there is a question regarding the surface condition of the weld when interpreting a radiographic film, the film shall be
compared to the actual weld surface for determination of acceptability.

b) Indications shown on the radiographies of welds and characterized as imperfections are un-acceptable under the
following condition:

1) Any indications characterized as a crack or zone of incomplete fusion or penetration.

2) Any other elongated indication at radiography, which has length greater than:

(a) 1/4 in. (6mm) for t up to 3/4 in. (19mm)

(b) 1/3 t for t from 3/4 in. (19mm) to 2 1/4 in. (57mm)

(c) 3/4 t (19mm) for t over 2 1/4 in. (57mm)

Where: t= thickness of weld excluding any allowable reinforcement.

3) Any group of aligned indications that have an aggregate length greater than t in a length of 12t , except when the
distance between the successive imperfections exceed 6L where L is the length of the longest imperfection in the group.
4) Rounded indications in excess of that specified by the acceptance standards given in ASME sec. VIII, DIV I,
appendix 4 fig. 4-2 to 4-8

Note: spot RT shall be done as per ASME Sec. VIII, Div. 1 UW-52; however the acceptance criteria shall be according
to UW-51 (as specification).

DEFECT REMOVAL

Repair area shall be located on the weld line after evaluation & interpretation of radiograph .defects shall be removed by
suitable method such as grinding, chipping or gouging (if permitted).welding of the repair area shall meet the requirement
of related WPS,PQR.

CERTIFICATION AND PERSONNEL QUALIFICATION IN RADIOGRAPHIC TESTING.

Personnel performing radiography examination to this procedure shall be qualified and certified by XXX also shall meet
the requirements of ASNT-SNT-TC-1A-2001 EDITION at least level II and on ASNT-SNT-TC-IA for code section I
and sec VII div 2. Film interpreter shall have level II as a minimum.

Visual Testing
Visual testing (VT) is the oldest and most widely used nondestructive testing (NDT)
techniques. It is typically the first step in the examination process to inspect a variety of
product forms including castings, forgings, machined components and weld elements.

Compared to other techniques, visual testing is low in cost and easy to apply, and often
eliminates the need for further types of testing. Some of the industries that use VT include
structural steel, automotive, petrochemical, power generation, and aerospace.

QUALIFICATION:
The qualification of personnel conducting VT shall be as stipulated in personnel qualified
as per document ASNT-SNT-TC-1A or as per ISO 9712 PCN level II.
All The personnel shall be capable of reading standard J-1 letters on standard Jaeger test
type charts for near vision. Equivalent near vision tests are acceptable.

RESPONSIBILITES:
The Manager, QC shall be responsible for establishing and approving procedure and its
implementation.
Qualified Inspection Engineer shall be responsible for the conduct of examination and
documentation of visual examination.
APPLICABLE CODES AND REFERENCES:
ASME Code [Link] Div 1, Div 2 and ASME B31.1
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Visual examination is defined as the observation of whatever portions of components,
joints, and other piping elements that are exposed to such observation before, during, or
after manufacture, fabrication, assembly, erection, inspection, testing or in service
inspection. This examination may include verification of the applicable requirements for
materials, components, dimensions, joint preparation, alignment, welding or joining,
supports, assembly, and erection.

Lighting intensity should be 1000 lux minimum to properly inspect or examine affected
areas or surfaces. A 100 W hand lamp at a distance of 500mm will provide 1000 lux light
intensity

VISUAL EXAMINATION TOOLS & AIDS

- Visual aids such as flashlight, mirrors, magnifying lenses, cameras, or other suitable
instrument.
- Mechanical aids for visual examination such as vernier caliper, micrometer, weld gages,
high- low gauge (for measuring pipe joint alignment) etc.
- In some cases, remote visual examination may have to be substituted for direct
examination.
- Remote visual examination may use visual aids such as mirrors, telescopes, borescopes,
fibre optics, cameras, or other suitable instruments. Such systems shall have a resolution
capability at least equivalent to that obtainable by direct visual examination
VISUAL EXAMINATION BEFORE WELDING
Physical Condition of Material or items:
-Surfaces of materials shall be free from defects, and imperfections, which may affect the
quality of a weld. Edges of materials to be welded shall be free from scale, slag, rust,
moistures, grease, or other foreign material that may impair welding quality.
-Edges of materials cut either by shearing or flame cutting that have notches, laps, loose
slags, gouging marks shall be suitably removed before welding.
-Surface of base materials shall also be checked for possible manufacturing or handling
defects.
Fit-up Inspection
The following shall be checked in conformance to approved WPS, drawing and / or any
other applicable code requirements.
➟ Alignment (The internal mis-alignment not to exceed 2.0 mm)
➟ Root face or root land
➟ Root opening.
➟ Bevel angle.
➟ Tack welds

VISUAL EXAMINATION DURING WELDING

The following shall be verified/monitored during welding for compliance with WPS:
➟ Welding process.
➟ Filler metal.
➟ Flux or Shielding gas.
➟ Preheat or inter-pass temperature.
➟ Examination after back chip / back gouging (if applicable)
Arc strikes outside the area of intended weld should be avoided on any base metal.

VISUAL EXAMINATION AFTER WELDING

The weld shall be examined after completion for the following:
a. Acceptability of weld appearance as per the acceptance criteria
[Link] requirements for welds (fillet size etc.)

VISUAL EXAMINATION DURING INSERVICE INSPECTION

The weld shall be examined for the following:
➟ Acceptability of weld appearance as per the acceptance criteria
➟ Dimensional requirements for welds (fillet size etc.)
➟ Inservice induced visible discontinuities like crack erosion etc

REPORTING CRITERIA
Following indications in welds in pipe and piping components and parent metal surface
under examination shall be reported as described under:
⇢ Cracks — surface.
⇢ Undercut on surface which is greater than ⁄ in. (1.0 mm) deep.
⇢ Lack of fusion on surface.
⇢ Incomplete penetration (applies only when inside surface is readily accessible).
⇢ Any other linear indications greater than ⁄ in. (5.0 mm) long.
⇢ Surface porosity with rounded indications having dimensions greater than ⁄ in. (5.0
mm) or four or more rounded indications separated by ⁄ in. (2.0 mm) or less edge to
edge in any direction. Rounded indications are indications which are circular or elliptical
with their length less than three times their width.
REPAIR AND RE-EXAMINATION
➻Any unacceptable indication shall be repaired by grinding, care shall be taken to avoid
reducing weld metal or base metal thickness below the minimum required thickness.

➻ If required weld repairs shall be carried out using qualified procedures and welders.
➻The repaired area shall be re examined to ensure it meets the applicable requirements.
VISUAL EXAMINATION DOCUMENTATION
➟ Visual Examination shall be reported on approved format
➟ Name of the individual who carried out the visual examination shall be specified.
➟ All visual examination records shall be available for review by AI.

Details of remote visual Inspection ( BOROSCOPY)

The boroscopy instruments have been designed for internal observation and inspection of
machinery, equipment and structures that cannot be viewed from the outside
Before each use, prepare and inspect the instrument as instructed by manufacturer. The
image quality is variable depending on the surface condition of the object and image
capturing condition such as the brightness. The accuracy of the results obtained with this
measurement technique is identified through experiments.
The object distance measurement shall measure the distance between the distal end of the
optical adapter and the subject in a live or frozen image.
As the measurement is affected if the image of the subject is blurred, move the distal end
of the scope slowly.
Operating procedure for boroscope shall be as under:
1. Startup: Display the image to be measured and press the MEAS/ENTER joystick.
2. Reference point specification: Place the cursor on each extremity of an object with a
known length in the observed image and press the MEAS/ENTER joystick.
3. Reference quantity specification: When the reference length input message is
displayed, input the known quantity tilting the MEAS/ENTER joystick then press the
MEAS/ENTER joystick to enter it.
4. Measurement point specification: Place the cursor on each extremity of the
measurement object and press the MEAS/ENTER joystick to measure its length.
During Operation of boroscope following caution points shall be observed:
✶ Do not insert the scope into an operating machine as this could damage the scope.
✶ Keep the insertion tube away from liquids other than water, saline, machine oil or light
oil.
✶ Avoid moistening the parts other than the insertion tube,
✶ Release the angulation lock if it activated and gently withdraw the scope while
observing the image on the monitor

✶ Clean the insertion tube immediately after withdrawing the scope

✶ Do not use a hard or abrasive cloth or brush to clean the scope, as they could cause
damage to the instrument

✶ Store the equipment under normal room temperature and humidity conditions. Make
sure it is kept in good condition. Avoid areas that are subject to direct sunlight or
radioactive rays.

✶ Do not bend the scope by a radius below that given in the instruction manual (generally
30˚).
 ACOUSTIC EMISSION (AE) OVERVIEW
Acoustic Emission (AE) testing is a powerful method for examining the behavior of
materials deforming under stress. Acoustic Emission may be defined as a transient
elastic wave generated by the rapid release of energy within a material. Materials "talk"
when they are in trouble: with Acoustic Emission equipment you can "listen" to the
sounds of cracks growing, fibers breaking and many other modes of active damage in
the stressed material.

Small-scale damage is detectable long before failure, so AE can be used as a non-

destructive technique to find defects during structural proof tests and plant operation.
AE also offers unique capabilities for materials research and development in the
laboratory. Finally, AE equipment is adaptable to many forms of production QC testing,
including weld monitoring and leak detection.

Some typical applications of the Acoustic Emission principle in testing materials are as
follows:

Behavior of materials: metals, ceramics, composites, rocks, concrete:

● Crack propagation

● Yielding

● Fatigue

● Corrosion, Stress corrosion

● Creep

● Fiber fracture, delamination

Nondestructive testing during manufacturing processes:

 ● Material processing

● Phase transformation in metals and alloys (martensitic transformation).

● Detects defects such as pores, quenching cracks, inclusions, etc.

● Fabrication

● Deforming processes; rolling, forging, extruding.

● Welding and brazing; detects detection (inclusions, cracks, lack of

penetration).

● TIG, MIG, spot, electron beam, etc.

● Weld monitoring for process control.

AE Monitoring structures:

● Continuous monitoring (metallic structures, mines, etc.).

● Periodic testing (pressure vessels, pipelines, bridges, cables).

● Loose Part Detection

● Leak Detection

Special applications:

● Petrochemical and chemical: storage tanks, reactor vessels, offshore

platforms, drill pipe, pipelines, valves, hydro-treaters.

● Electric utilities: nuclear reactor vessels, piping, steam generators, ceramic

insulators, transformers, aerial devices.

● Aircraft and aerospace: fatigue cracks, corrosion, composite structures, etc.

 ● Electronics: loose particles in electronic components, bonding, substrate
cracking.

Introduction to Acoustic Emission Testing

Acoustic Emission (AE) refers to the generation of transient elastic waves produced by
a sudden redistribution of stress in a material. When a structure is subjected to an
external stimulus (change in pressure, load, or temperature), localized sources trigger
the release of energy, in the form of stress waves, which propagate to the surface and
are recorded by sensors. With the right equipment and setup, motions on the order of
picometers (10 -12 m) can be identified. Sources of AE vary from natural events like
earthquakes and rockbursts to the initiation and growth of cracks, slip and dislocation
movements, melting, twinning, and phase transformations in metals. In composites,
matrix cracking and fiberbreakage and debonding contribute to acoustic emissions.
AE’s have also been measured and recorded in polymers, wood, and concrete, among
other materials.
Detection and analysis of AE signals can supply valuable information regarding the
origin and importance of a discontinuity in a material. Because of the versatility of
Acoustic Emission Testing (AET), it has many industrial applications (e.g. assessing
structural integrity, detecting flaws, testing for leaks, or monitoring weld quality) and is
used extensively as a research tool.
Acoustic Emission is unlike most other nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques in two
regards. The first difference pertains to the origin of the signal. Instead of supplying
energy to the object under examination, AET simply listens for the energy released by
the object. AE tests are often performed on structures while in operation, as this
provides adequate loading for propagating defects and triggering acoustic emissions.
The second difference is that AET deals with dynamic processes, or changes, in a
material. This is particularly meaningful because only active features (e.g. crack
growth) are highlighted. The ability to discern between developing and stagnant defects
is significant. However, it is possible for flaws to go undetected altogether if the
loading is not high enough to cause an acoustic event. Furthermore, AE testing usually
provides an immediate indication relating to the strength or risk of failure of a
component. Other advantages of AET include fast and complete volumetric inspection
using multiple sensors, permanent sensor mounting for process control, and no need to
disassemble and clean a specimen.
Unfortunately, AE systems can only qualitatively gauge how much damage is contained
in a structure. In order to obtain quantitative results about size, depth, and overall
acceptability of a part, other NDT methods (often ultrasonic testing) are necessary.
Another drawback of AE stems from loud service environments which contribute
extraneous noise to the signals. For successful applications, signal discrimination and
noise reduction are crucial.
A Brief History of AE Testing

Although acoustic emissions can be created in a controlled environment, they can also
occur naturally. Therefore, as a means of quality control, the origin of AE is hard to
pinpoint. As early as 6,500 BC, potters were known to listen for audible sounds during
the cooling of their ceramics, signifying structural failure. In metal working, the term
"tin cry" (audible emissions produced by the mechanical twinning of pure tin during
plastic deformation) was coined around 3,700 BC by tin smelters in Asia Minor. The
first documented observations of AE appear to have been made in the 8th century by
Arabian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan. In a book,Hayyan wrote that Jupiter (tin) gives off
a ‘harsh sound’ when worked, while Mars (iron) ‘sounds much’ during forging.
Many texts in the late 19th century referred to the audible emissions made by materials
such as tin, iron, cadmium and zinc. One noteworthy correlation between different
metals and their acoustic emissions came from Czochralski, who witnessed the
relationship between tin and zinc cry and twinning. Later, Albert Portevin and Francois
Le Chatelier observed AE emissions from a stressed Al-Cu-Mn (Aluminum-Copper-
Manganese) alloy.
 Modern Tensile Testing
Machine (H. Cross
Company)
The next 20 years brought further verification with the work of Robert Anderson
(tensile testing of an aluminum alloy beyond its yield point), Erich Scheil (linked the
formation of martensite in steel to audible noise), and Friedrich Forster, who with
Scheil related an audible noise to the formation of martensite in high-nickel steel.
Experimentation continued throughout the mid-1900’s, culminating in the PhD thesis
written by Joseph Kaiser entitled "Results and Conclusions from Measurements of
Sound in Metallic Materials under Tensile Stress.” Soon after becoming aware of
Kaiser’s efforts, Bradford Schofield initiated the first research program in the United
States to look at the materials engineering applications of AE. Fittingly, Kaiser’s
research is generally recognized as the beginning of modern day acoustic emission
testing.
Theory - AE Sources
As mentioned in the Introduction, acoustic emissions can result from the initiation and
growth of cracks, slip and dislocation movements, twinning, or phase transformations in
metals. In any case, AE’s originate with stress. When a stress is exerted on a material, a
strain is induced in the material as well. Depending on the magnitude of the stress and
the properties of the material, an object may return to its original dimensions or be
permanently deformed after the stress is removed. These two conditions are known as
elastic and plastic deformation, respectively.
The most detectible acoustic emissions take place when a loaded material undergoes
plastic deformation or when a material is loaded at or near its yield stress. On the
microscopic level, as plastic deformation occurs, atomic planes slip past each other
through the movement of dislocations. These atomic-scale deformations release energy
in the form of elastic waves which “can be thought of as naturally generated ultrasound”
traveling through the object. When cracks exist in a metal, the stress levels present in
front of the crack tip can be several times higher than the surrounding area. Therefore,
AE activity will also be observed when the material ahead of the crack tip undergoes
plastic deformation (micro-yielding).
Two sources of fatigue cracks also cause AE’s. The first source is emissive particles
(e.g. nonmetallic inclusions) at the origin of the crack tip. Since these particles are less
ductile than the surrounding material, they tend to break more easily when the metal is
strained, resulting in an AE signal. The second source is the propagation of the crack tip
that occurs through the movement of dislocations and small-scale cleavage produced by
triaxial stresses.
The amount of energy released by an acoustic emission and the amplitude of the
waveform are related to the magnitude and velocity of the source event. The amplitude
of the emission is proportional to the velocity of crack propagation and the amount of
surface area created. Large, discrete crack jumps will produce larger AE signals than
cracks that propagate slowly over the same distance.
Detection and conversion of these elastic waves to electrical signals is the basis of AE
testing. Analysis of these signals yield valuable information regarding the origin and
importance of a discontinuity in a material. As discussed in the following section,
specialized equipment is necessary to detect the wave energy and decipher which
signals are meaningful.
Activity of AE Sources in Structural Loading

Basic AE history plot showing Kaiser effect

(BCB), Felicity effect (DEF), and emission
during hold (GH) 2

AE signals generated under different loading patterns can provide valuable information
concerning the structural integrity of a material. Load levels that have been previously
exerted on a material do not produce AE activity. In other words, discontinuities
created in a material do not expand or move until that former stress is exceeded. This
phenomenon, known as the Kaiser Effect, can be seen in the load versus AE plot to the
right. As the object is loaded, acoustic emission events accumulate (segment AB). When
the load is removed and reapplied (segment BCB), AE events do not occur again until
the load at point B is exceeded. As the load exerted on the material is increased again
(BD), AE’s are generated and stop when the load is removed. However, at point F, the
applied load is high enough to cause significant emissions even though the previous
maximum load (D) was not reached. This phenomenon is known as the Felicity Effect.
This effect can be quantified using the Felicity Ratio, which is the load where
considerable AE resumes, divided by the maximum applied load (F/D).
Knowledge of the Kaiser Effect and Felicity Effect can be used to determine if major
structural defects are present. This can be achieved by applying constant loads (relative
to the design loads exerted on the material) and “listening” to see if emissions continue
to occur while the load is held. As shown in the figure, if AE signals continue to be
detected during the holding of these loads (GH), it is likely that substantial structural
defects are present. In addition, a material may contain critical defects if an identical
load is reapplied and AE signals continue to be detected. Another guideline governing
AE’s is the Dunegan corollary, which states that if acoustic emissions are observed
prior to a previous maximum load, some type of new damage must have occurred.
(Note: Time dependent processes like corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement tend to
render the Kaiser Effect useless)
Noise
The sensitivity of an acoustic emission system is often limited by the amount of
background noise nearby. Noise in AE testing refers to any undesirable signals detected
by the sensors. Examples of these signals include frictional sources (e.g. loose bolts or
movable connectors that shift when exposed to wind loads) and impact sources (e.g.
rain, flying objects or wind-driven dust) in bridges. Sources of noise may also be
present in applications where the area being tested may be disturbed by mechanical
vibrations (e.g. pumps).
To compensate for the effects of background noise, various procedures can be
implemented. Some possible approaches involve fabricating special sensors with
electronic gates for noise blocking, taking precautions to place sensors as far away as
possible from noise sources, and electronic filtering (either using signal arrival times or
differences in the spectral content of true AE signals and background noise).
Pseudo Sources
In addition to the AE source mechanisms described above, pseudo source mechanisms
produce AE signals that are detected by AE equipment. Examples include liquefaction
and solidification, friction in rotating bearings, solid-solid phase transformations, leaks,
cavitation, and the realignment or growth of magnetic domains (SeeBarkhausen Effect).
Theory - Acoustic Waves
Wave Propagation
A primitive wave released at the AE source is illustrated in the figure right. The
displacement waveform is a step-like function corresponding to the permanent change
associated with the source process. The analogous velocity and stress waveforms are
essentially pulse-like. The width and height of the primitive pulse depend on the
dynamics of the source process. Source processes such as microscopic crack jumps and
precipitate fractures are usually completed in a fraction of a microsecond or a few
microseconds, which explains why the pulse is short in duration. The amplitude and
energy of the primitive pulse vary over an enormous range from
submicroscopicdislocation movements to gross crack jumps.

Primitive AE wave released at a source. The primitive wave is

essentially a stress pulse corresponding to a permanent
displacement of the material. The ordinate quantities refer to a
point in the material.

Angular dependence of acoustic emission radiated from a

growingmicrocrack. Most of the energy is directed in the 90 and
 270odirections, perpendicular to the crack surfaces.

Waves radiates from the source in all directions, often having a strong directionality
depending on the nature of the source process, as shown in the second figure. Rapid
movement is necessary if a sizeable amount of the elastic energy liberated during
deformation is to appear as an acoustic emission.
As these primitive waves travel through a material, their form is changed considerably.
Elastic wave source and elastic wave motion theories are being investigated to
determine the complicated relationship between the AE source pulse and the
corresponding movement at the detection site. The ultimate goal of studies of the
interaction between elastic waves and material structure is to accurately develop a
description of the source event from the output signal of a distant sensor.
However, most materials-oriented researchers and NDT inspectors are not concerned
with the intricate knowledge of each source event. Instead, they are primarily interested
in the broader, statistical aspects of AE. Because of this, they prefer to use narrow band
(resonant) sensors which detect only a small portion of the broadband of frequencies
emitted by an AE. These sensors are capable of measuring hundreds of signals each
second, in contrast to the more expensive high-fidelity sensors used in source function
analysis. More information on sensors will be discussed later in the Equipment section.
The signal that is detected by a sensor is a combination of many parts of the waveform
initially emitted. Acoustic emission source motion is completed in a few millionths of a
second. As the AE leaves the source, the waveform travels in a spherically spreading
pattern and is reflected off the boundaries of the object. Signals that are in phase with
each other as they reach the sensor produce constructive interference which usually
results in the highest peak of the waveform being detected. The typical time interval
from when an AE wave reflects around the test piece (repeatedly exciting the sensor)
until it decays, ranges from the order of 100 microseconds in a highly damped,
nonmetallic material to tens of milliseconds in a lightly damped metallic material.
Attenuation
The intensity of an AE signal detected by a sensor is considerably lower than the
intensity that would have been observed in the close proximity of the source. This is due
to attenuation. There are three main causes of attenuation, beginning with geometric
spreading. As an AE spreads from its source in a plate-like material, its amplitude
decays by 30% every time it doubles its distance from the source. In three-dimensional
structures, the signal decays on the order of 50%. This can be traced back to the simple
conservation of energy. Another cause of attenuation is material damping, as alluded to
in the previous paragraph. While an AE wave passes through a material, its elastic and
kinetic energies are absorbed and converted into heat. The third cause of attenuation is
wave scattering. Geometric discontinuities (e.g. twin boundaries,
nonmetallicinclusions, or grain boundaries) and structural boundaries both reflect some
of the wave energy that was initially transmitted.
Measurements of the effects of attenuation on an AE signal can be performed with a
simple apparatus known as a Hsu-Nielson Source. This consists of a mechanical pencil
with either 0.3 or 0.5 mm 2H lead that is passed through a cone-shaped Teflon shoe
designed to place the lead in contact with the surface of a material at a 30 degree angle.
When the pencil lead is pressed and broken against the material, it creates a small, local
deformation that is relieved in the form of a stress wave, similar to the type of AE
signal produced by a crack. By using this method, simulated AE sources can be created
at various sites on a structure to determine the optimal position for the placement of
sensors and to ensure that all areas of interest are within the detection range of the
sensor or sensors.
Wave Mode and Velocity
As mentioned earlier, using AE inspection in conjunction with other NDE techniques
can be an effective method in gauging the location and nature of defects. Since source
locations are determined by the time required for the wave to travel through the material
to a sensor, it is important that the velocity of the propagating waves be accurately
calculated. This is not an easy task since wave propagation depends on the material in
question and the wave mode being detected. For many applications, Lamb waves are of
primary concern because they are able to give the best indication of wave propagation
from a source whose distance from the sensor is larger than the thickness of the
material. For additional information on Lamb waves, see the wave mode page in the
Ultrasonic Inspection section.
Equipment

Acoustic emission testing can be performed in the field with portable instruments or in a
stationary laboratory setting. Typically, systems contain a sensor, preamplifier, filter,
and amplifier, along with measurement, display, and storage equipment (e.g.
oscilloscopes, voltmeters, and personal computers). Acoustic emission sensors respond
to dynamic motion that is caused by an AE event. This is achieved through transducers
which convert mechanical movement into an electrical voltage signal. The transducer
element in an AE sensor is almost always a piezoelectric crystal, which is commonly
made from a ceramic such as leadzirconate titanate (PZT). Transducers are selected
based on operating frequency, sensitivity and environmental characteristics, and are
grouped into two classes: resonant and broadband. The majority of AE equipment is
responsive to movement in its typical operating frequency range of 30 kHz to 1 MHz.
For materials with high attenuation (e.g. plastic composites), lower frequencies may be
used to better distinguish AE signals. The opposite holds true as well.

Ideally, the AE signal that reaches the mainframe will be free of background noise and
electromagnetic interference. Unfortunately, this is not realistic. However, sensors and
preamplifiers are designed to help eliminate unwanted signals. First, the preamplifier
boosts the voltage to provide gain and cable drive capability. To minimize interference,
a preamplifier is placed close to the transducer; in fact, many transducers today are
equipped with integrated preamplifiers. Next, the signal is relayed to a bandpass filter
for elimination of low frequencies (common to background noise) and high frequencies.
Following completion of this process, the signal travels to the acoustic system
mainframe and eventually to a computer or similar device for analysis and storage.
Depending on noise conditions, further filtering or amplification at the mainframe may
still be necessary.

Schematic Diagram of a Basic Four-channel Acoustic Emission Testing

System

After passing the AE system mainframe, the signal comes to a detection/measurement

circuit as shown in the figure directly above. Note that multiple-measurement circuits
can be used in multiple sensor/channel systems for source location purposes (to be
described later). At the measurement circuitry, the shape of the conditioned signal is
compared with a threshold voltage value that has been programmed by the operator.
Signals are either continuous (analogous to Gaussian, random noise with amplitudes
varying according to the magnitude of the AE events) or burst-type. Each time the
threshold voltage is exceeded, the measurement circuit releases a digital pulse. The first
pulse is used to signify the beginning of a hit. (A hit is used to describe the AE event
that is detected by a particular sensor. One AE event can cause a system with numerous
channels to record multiple hits.) Pulses will continue to be generated while the signal
exceeds the threshold voltage. Once this process has stopped for a predetermined
amount of time, the hit is finished (as far as the circuitry is concerned). The data from
the hit is then read into a microcomputer and the measurement circuit is reset.
Hit Driven AE Systems and Measurement of Signal Features

Although several AE system designs are available (combining various options,

sensitivity, and cost), most AE systems use a hit-driven architecture. The hit-driven
design is able to efficiently measure all detected signals and record digital descriptions
for each individual feature (detailed later in this section). During periods of inactivity,
the system lies dormant. Once a new signal is detected, the system records the hit or
hits, and the data is logged for present and/or future display.
Also common to most AE systems is the ability to perform routine tasks that are
valuable for AE inspection. These tasks include quantitative signal measurements with
corresponding time and/or load readings, discrimination between real and false signals
(noise), and the collection of statistical information about the parameters of each signal.
AE Signal Features

With the equipment configured and setup complete, AE testing may begin. The sensor is
coupled to the test surface and held in place with tape or adhesive. An operator then
monitors the signals which are excited by the induced stresses in the object. When a
useful transient, or burst signal is correctly obtained, parameters like amplitude, counts,
measured area under the rectified signal envelope (MARSE), duration, and rise time
can be gathered. Each of the AE signal feature shown in the image is described below.
Amplitude, A, is the greatest measured voltage in a waveform and is measured in
decibels (dB). This is an important parameter in acoustic emission inspection because it
determines the detectability of the signal. Signals with amplitudes below the operator-
defined, minimum threshold will not be recorded.
Rise time, R, is the time interval between the first threshold crossing and the signal
peak. This parameter is related to the propagation of the wave between the source of the
acoustic emission event and the sensor. Therefore, rise time is used for qualification of
signals and as a criterion for noise filter.
Duration, D, is the time difference between the first and last threshold crossings.
Duration can be used to identify different types of sources and to filter out noise. Like
counts (N), this parameter relies upon the magnitude of the signal and the acoustics of
the material.
MARSE, E, sometimes referred to as energy counts, is the measure of the area under
the envelope of the rectified linear voltage time signal from the transducer. This can be
thought of as the relative signal amplitude and is useful because the energy of the
emission can be determined. MARSE is also sensitive to the duration and amplitude of
the signal, but does not use counts or user defined thresholds and operating frequencies.
MARSE is regularly used in the measurements of acoustic emissions.
Counts, N, refers to the number of pulses emitted by the measurement circuitry if the
signal amplitude is greater than the threshold. Depending on the magnitude of the AE
event and the characteristics of the material, one hit may produce one or many counts.
While this is a relatively simple parameter to collect, it usually needs to be combined
with amplitude and/or duration measurements to provide quality information about the
shape of a signal.
Data Display

Software-based AE systems are able to generate graphical displays for analysis of the
signals recorded during AE inspection. These displays provide valuable information
about the detected events and can be classified into four categories: location, activity,
intensity, and data quality (crossplots).
Location displays identify the origin of the detected AE events. These can be graphed
by X coordinates, X-Y coordinates, or by channel for linear computed-source location,
planar computed-source location, and zone location techniques. Examples of each
graph are shown to the right.
Activity displays show AE activity as a function of time on an X-Y plot (figure below
left). Each bar on the graphs represents a specified amount of time. For example, a one-
hour test could be divided into 100 time increments. All activity measured within a
given 36 second interval would be displayed in a given histogram bar. Either axis may
be displayed logarithmically in the event of high AE activity or long testing periods. In
addition to showing measured activity over a single time period, cumulative activity
displays (figure below right) can be created to show the total amount of activity
detected during a test. This display is valuable for measuring the total emission quantity
and the average rate of emission.
Intensity displays are used to give statistical information concerning the magnitude of
the detected signals. As can be seen in the amplitude distribution graph to the near right,
the number of hits is plotted at each amplitude increment (expressed in dB’s) beyond the
user-defined threshold. These graphs can be used to determine whether a few large
signals or many small ones created the detected AE signal energy. In addition, if the Y-
axis is plotted logarithmically, the shape of the amplitude distribution can be interpreted
to determine the activity of a crack (e.g. a linear distribution indicates growth).
The fourth category of AE displays, crossplots, is used for evaluating the quality of the
data collected. Counts versus amplitude, duration versus amplitude, and counts versus
duration are frequently usedcrossplots. As shown in the final figure, each hit is marked
as a single point, indicating the correlation between the two signal features. The
recognized signals from AE events typically form a diagonal band since larger signals
usually generate higher counts. Because noise signals caused by electromagnetic
interference do not have as many threshold-crossing pulses as typical AE source events,
the hits are located below the main band. Conversely, signals caused by friction or
leaks have more threshold-crossing pulses than typical AE source events and are
subsequently located above the main band. In the case of ambiguous data, expertise is
necessary in separating desirable and unwanted hits.
AE Source Location Techniques

Multi-Channel Source Location Techniques:

Locating the source of significant acoustic emissions is often the main goal of an
inspection. Although the magnitude of the damage may be unknown after AE analysis,
follow up testing at source locations can provide these answers. As previously
mentioned, many AE systems are capable of using multiple sensors/channels during
testing, allowing them to record a hit from a single AE event. These AE systems can be
used to determine the location of an event source. As hits are recorded by each
sensor/channel, the source can be located by knowing the velocity of the wave in the
material and the difference in hit arrival times among the sensors, as measured by
hardware circuitry or computer software. By properly spacing the sensors in this
manner, it is possible to inspect an entire structure with relatively few sensors.
Source location techniques assume that AE waves travel at a constant velocity in a
material. However, various effects may alter the expected velocity of the AE waves
(e.g. reflections and multiple wave modes) and can affect the accuracy of this technique.
Therefore, the geometric effects of the structure being tested and the operating frequency
of the AE system must be considered when determining whether a particular source
location technique is feasible for a given test structure.

Linear Location Technique

Several source location techniques have been developed based on this method. One of
the commonly used computed-source location techniques is the linear location principle
shown to the right. Linear location is often used to evaluate struts on truss bridges.
When the source is located at the midpoint, the time of arrival difference for the wave at
the two sensors is zero. If the source is closer to one of the sensors, a difference in
arrival times is measured. To calculate the distance of the source location from the
midpoint, the arrival time is multiplied by the wave velocity. Whether the location lies
to the right or left of the midpoint is determined by which sensor first records the hit.
This is a linear relationship and applies to any event sources between the sensors.
Because the above scenario implicitly assumes that the source is on a line passing
through the two sensors, it is only valid for a linear problem. When using AE to identify
a source location in a planar material, three or more sensors are used, and the optimal
position of the source is between the sensors. Two categories of source location
analysis are used for this situation: zonal location and point location.

Zonal Location Technique

As the name implies, zonal location aims to trace the waves to a specific zone or region
around a sensor. This method is used in anisotropic materials or in other structures
where sensors are spaced relatively far apart or when high material attenuation affects
the quality of signals at multiple sensors. Zones can be lengths, areas or volumes
depending on the dimensions of the array. A planar sensor array with detection by one
sensor is shown in the upper right figure. The source can be assumed to be within the
region and less than halfway between sensors.
When additional sensors are applied, arrival times and amplitudes help pinpoint the
source zone. The ordered pair in lower right figure represents the two sensors detecting
the signal in the zone and the order of signal arrival at each sensor. When relating signal
strength to peak amplitude, the largest peak amplitude is assumed to come from the
nearest sensor, second largest from the next closest sensor and so forth.
Point Location
In order for point location to be justified, signals must be detected in a minimum number
of sensors: two for linear, three for planar, four for volumetric. Accurate arrival times
must also be available. Arrival times are often found by using peak amplitude or the
first threshold crossing. The velocity of wave propagation and exact position of the
sensors are necessary criteria as well. Equations can then be derived using sensor array
geometry or more complex algebra to locate more specific points of interest.
AE Barkhausen Techniques
Barkhausen Effect

The Barkhausen effect refers to the sudden change in size of ferromagnetic domains that
occur during magnetization or demagnetization. During magnetization, favorably
oriented domains develop at the cost of less favorably oriented domains. These two
factors result in minute jumps of magnetization when a ferromagnetic sample (e.g. iron)
is exposed to an increasing magnetic field (see figure). Domain wall motion itself is
determined by many factors like microstructure, grain boundaries, inclusions, and stress
and strain. By the same token, theBarkhausen effect is too a function of stress and strain.
Barkhausen Noise
Barkhausen noise can be heard if a coil of wire is wrapped around the sample
undergoing magnetization. Abrupt movements in the magnetic field produce spiking
current pulses in the coil. When amplified, the clicks can be compared to Rice Krispies
or the crumbling a candy wrapper. The amount of Barkhausen noise is influenced by
material imperfections and dislocations and is likewise dependent on the mechanical
properties of a material. Currently, materials exposed to high energy particles (nuclear
reactors) or cyclic mechanical stresses (pipelines) are available for nondestructive
evaluation using Barkhausen noise, one of the many branches of AE testing.
AE Applications
Acoustic emission is a very versatile, non-invasive way to gather information about a
material or structure. Acoustic Emission testing (AET) is be applied to inspect and
monitor pipelines, pressure vessels, storage tanks, bridges, aircraft, and bucket trucks,
and a variety of composite and ceramic components. It is also used in process control
applications such as monitoring welding processes. A few examples of AET
applications follow.
Weld Monitoring

During the welding process, temperature changes induce stresses between the weld and
the base metal. These stresses are often relieved by heat treating the weld. However, in
some cases tempering the weld is not possible and minor cracking occurs. Amazingly,
cracking can continue for up to 10 days after the weld has been completed. Using
stainless steel welds with known inclusions and accelerometers for detection purposes
and background noise monitoring, it was found by W. D. Jolly (1969) that low level
signals and more sizeable bursts were related to the growth of microfissures and larger
cracks respectively. ASTM E 749-96 is a standard practice of AE monitoring of
continuous welding.

Bucket Truck (Cherry Pickers) Integrity Evaluation

Accidents, overloads and fatigue can all occur when operating bucket trucks or other
aerial equipment. If a mechanical or structural defect is ignored, serious injury or
fatality can result. In 1976, the Georgia Power Company pioneered the aerial manlift
device inspection. Testing by independent labs and electrical utilities followed.
Although originally intended to examine only the boom sections, the method is now used
for inspecting the pedestal, pins, and various other components. Normally, the AE tests
are second in a chain of inspections which start with visual checks. If necessary,
follow-up tests take the form of magnetic particle, dye penetrant, or ultrasonic
inspections. Experienced personnel can perform five to ten tests per day, saving
valuable time and money along the way. ASTM F914 governs the procedures for
examining insulated aerial personnel devices.
Gas Trailer Tubes

Acoustic emission testing on pressurized jumbo tube trailers was authorized by the
Department of Transportation in 1983. Instead of using hydrostatic retesting, where
tubes must be removed from service and disassembled, AET allows for in situ testing.
A 10% over-pressurization is performed at a normal filling station with AE sensors
attached to the tubes at each end. A multichannel acoustic system is used to detection
and mapped source locations. Suspect locations are further evaluated using ultrasonic
inspection, and when defects are confirmed the tube is removed from use. AET can
detect subcritical flaws whereas hydrostatic testing cannot detect cracks until they cause
rupture of the tube. Because of the high stresses in the circumferential direction of the
tubes, tests are geared toward finding longitudinal fatigue cracks.
Bridges

Bridges contain many welds, joints and connections, and a combination of load and
environmental factors heavily influence damage mechanisms such as fatigue cracking
and metal thinning due to corrosion. Bridges receive a visual inspection about every
two years and when damage is detected, the bridge is either shut down, its weight
capacity is lowered, or it is singled out for more frequent monitoring. Acoustic
Emission is increasingly being used for bridge monitoring applications because it can
continuously gather data and detect changes that may be due to damage without requiring
lane closures or bridge shutdown. In fact, traffic flow is commonly used to load or
stress the bridge for the AE testing.
Aerospace Structures

Most aerospace structures consist of complex assemblies of components that have been
design to carry significant loads while being as light as possible. This combination of
requirements leads to many parts that can tolerate only a minor amount of damage
before failing. This fact makes detection of damage extremely important but
components are often packed tightly together making access for inspections difficult.
AET has found applications in monitoring the health of aerospace structures because
sensors can be attached in easily accessed areas that are remotely located from damage
prone sites. AET has been used in laboratory structural tests, as well as in flight test
applications. NASA's Wing Leading Edge Impact Detection System is partially based
on AE technology. The image to the right shows a technician applying AE transducers
on the inside of the Space Shuttle Discovery wing structure. The impact detection
system was developed to alert NASA officials to events such as the sprayed-on-foam
insulation impact that damaged the Space Shuttle Columbia's wing leading edge during
launch and lead to its breakup on reentry to the Earth's atmosphere.

Others

● Fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites, in particular glass-fiber

reinforced parts or structures (e.g. fan blades)

● Material research (e.g. investigation of material properties, breakdown

mechanisms, and damage behavior)

● Inspection and quality assurance, (e.g. wood drying processes, scratch tests)
 ● Real-time leakage test and location within various components (small
valves, steam lines, tank bottoms)

● Detection and location of high-voltage partial discharges in transformers

● Railroad tank car and rocket motor testing

There are a number of standards and guidelines that describe AE testing and application
procedures as supplied by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).
Examples are ASTM E 1932 for the AE examination of small parts and ASTM E1419-
00 for the method of examining seamless, gas-filled, pressure vessels.

Eddy Current Testing (ET) Overview

Eddy current testing a modern Non-destructive testing – NDT method that has become one of the prime tool for
quality control of products, materials and structures at various stages of manufacturing and in-service inspections.
Eddy current inspection can be used to find finest surface and subsurface flaws in any conductive material. Spectrums
of quality control engineering applications are existing applying Eddy current principles. Present Eddy current NDT
method has applications in Aerospace Component Inspections, Heat exchanger tube inspections and other critical
engineering applications.

Eddy Current Testing In Engineering Applications

1. Material sorting – mix up of various grade of materials either chemically different or variation in
mechanical properties or metallurgically difference in structures can sorted using Eddy current testing
equipments.

2. Surface and subsurface flaw detection in conducting materials. Flaws could be cracks,
laminations, and other discontinuities that can be detrimental to the product performance.
3. Conductivity testing for metals.

4. Accurate measurement of Coating thickness with Eddy current testing. The coating can be
conductive or nonconductive with few limitations on the accuracy of the measurements.
 5. This NDT inspection method can also be used for thickness testing and measurement of
especially low thicknesses of conductive materials where there is a restriction on using Ultrasonic
thickness gauging due to component configuration or the quantum of inspection. Eddy current
inspections can be either contact or non-contact type tests.

6. Eddy current testing is an effective means of verification of integrity of structures and estimation
of corrosion damages for heat exchanger tubes. Routine in-service maintenance inspectionsusing Eddy
current techniques yield reliable data for analysis and condition monitoring of plants and structures.

Principle of Eddy Current testing

When a test specimen is brought into proximity to the alternating flux field of an eddy current coil, coil flux causes
electrons in the specimen to circulate in a swirling eddy-like pattern; hence the term “eddy currents.”Eddy current
behavior depends on the properties of both the flux and the specimen itself. So eddy currents are circular alternating
currents caused by a varying magnetic field.

Advantages of Eddy Current Testing

● Eddy currents are Sensitive to small cracks and other defects
● Eddy current testing detects surface and near surface defects

● Eddy current Inspection gives immediate results

● ET Equipment is very portable

● This Method can be used for much more than flaw detection

● Minimum part preparation is required

● Eddy current Test probe does not need to contact the part

● Eddy currents Inspects complex shapes and sizes of conductive materials

Limitations of Eddy Current testing

● Eddy current inspection is suitable for only conductive materials
● Surface must be accessible to the Eddy current probe/s

● Skill and training required to carry out eddy current inspection is more extensive than other techniques
● Surface finish and roughness may interfere with test results

● Reference standards needed for setup for every application

● Depth of penetration is limited

● Flaws such as de-laminations that lie parallel to the probe coil winding and probe scan direction are
undetectable and may get detected only using specially designed Eddy current probes for such applications.
History of Eddy Current Testing

Eddy current testing has its origins with Michael Faraday's discovery of
electromagnetic induction in 1831. Faraday was a chemist in England during the early
1800's and is credited with the discovery of electromagnetic induction, electromagnetic
rotations, the magneto-optical effect, diamagnetism, and other phenomena. In 1879,
another scientist named Hughes recorded changes in the properties of a coil when
placed in contact with metals of different conductivity and permeability. However, it
was not until the Second World War that these effects were put to practical use for
testing materials. Much work was done in the 1950's and 60's, particularly in the
aircraft and nuclear industries. Eddy current testing is now a widely used and well-
understood inspection technique.
Basic Principles of Eddy Current Inspection
Eddy current inspection is one of several NDT methods that use the principal of
“electromagnetism” as the basis for conducting examinations. Several other methods
such as Remote Field Testing (RFT), Flux Leakage and Barkhausen Noise also use this
principle.
Eddy currents are created through a process called electromagnetic induction. When
alternating current is applied to the conductor, such as copper wire, a magnetic field
develops in and around the conductor. This magnetic field expands as the alternating
current rises to maximum and collapses as the current is reduced to zero. If another
electrical conductor is brought into the close proximity to this changing magnetic field,
current will be induced in this second conductor. Eddy currents are induced electrical
currents that flow in a circular path. They get their name from “eddies” that are formed
when a liquid or gas flows in a circular path around obstacles when conditions are
right.
One of the major advantages of eddy current as an NDT tool is the variety of
inspections and measurements that can be performed. In the proper circumstances, eddy
currents can be used for:

● Crack detection

● Material thickness measurements

● Coating thickness measurements

● Conductivity measurements for:

○ Material identification

○ Heat damage detection

○ Case depth determination

○ Heat treatment monitoring

Some of the advantages of eddy current inspection include:
● Sensitive to small cracks and other defects

● Detects surface and near surface defects

● Inspection gives immediate results

● Equipment is very portable

● Method can be used for much more than flaw detection

● Minimum part preparation is required

● Test probe does not need to contact the part

● Inspects complex shapes and sizes of conductive materials

Some of the limitations of eddy current inspection include:

● Only conductive materials can be inspected

● Surface must be accessible to the probe

● Skill and training required is more extensive than other techniques

● Surface finish and and roughness may interfere

● Reference standards needed for setup

● Depth of penetration is limited

● Flaws such as delaminations that lie parallel to the probe coil winding and
probe scan direction are undetectable
Present State of Eddy Current Inspection

Eddy current inspection is used in a variety of industries to find defects and make
measurements. One of the primary uses of eddy current testing is for defect detection
when the nature of the defect is well understood. In general, the technique is used to
inspect a relatively small area and the probe design and test parameters must be
established with a good understanding of the flaw that is to be detected. Since eddy
currents tend to concentrate at the surface of a material, they can only be used to detect
surface and near surface defects.
In thin materials such as tubing and sheet stock, eddy currents can be used to measure
the thickness of the material. This makes eddy current a useful tool for detecting
corrosion damage and other damage that causes a thinning of the material. The technique
is used to make corrosion thinning measurements on aircraft skins and in the walls of
tubing used in assemblies such as heat exchangers. Eddy current testing is also used to
measure the thickness of paints and other coatings.
Eddy currents are also affected by the electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability
of materials. Therefore, eddy current measurements can be used to sort materials and to
tell if a material has seen high temperatures or been heat treated, which changes the
conductivity of some materials.
Eddy current equipment and probes can be purchased in a wide variety of
configurations. Eddyscopes and a conductivity tester come packaged in very small and
battery operated units for easy portability. Computer based systems are also available
that provide easy data manipulation features for the laboratory. Signal processing
software has also been developed for trend removal, background subtraction, and noise
reduction. Impedance analyzers are also sometimes used to allow improved quantitative
eddy-current measurements. Some laboratories have multidimensional scanning
capabilities that are used to produce images of the scan regions. A few portable
scanning systems also exist for special applications, such as scanning regions of aircraft
fuselages.
Research to Improve Eddy current measurements
A great deal of research continues to be done to improve eddy current measurement
techniques. A few of the these activities, which are being conducted at Iowa State
University, are described below.
Photo inductive Imaging (PI)
A technique known as photo inductive imaging (PI) was pioneered at CNDE and
provides a powerful, high-resolution scanning and imaging tool. Microscopic resolution
is available using standard-sized eddy-current sensors. Development of probes and
instrumentation for photo inductive (PI) imaging is based on the use of a medium-power
(5 W nominal power) argon ion laser. This probe provides high resolution images and
has been used to study cracks, welds, and diffusion bonds in metallic specimens. The PI
technique is being studied as a way to image local stress variations in steel.
Pulsed Eddy Current
Research is currently being conducted on the use of a technique called pulsed eddy
current (PEC) testing. This technique can be used for the detection and quantification of
corrosion and cracking in multi-layer aluminum aircraft structures. Pulsed eddy-current
signals consist of a spectrum of frequencies meaning that, because of the skin effect,
each pulse signal contains information from a range of depths within a given test
specimen. In addition, the pulse signals are very low-frequency rich which provides
excellent depth penetration. Unlike multi-frequency approaches, the pulse-signals lend
themselves to convenient analysis. .
Measurements have been carried out both in the laboratory and in the field. Corrosion
trials have demonstrated how material loss can be detected and quantified in multi-layer
aluminum structures. More recently, studies carried out on three and four layer
structures show the ability to locate cracks emerging from fasteners. Pulsed eddy-
current measurements have also been applied to ferromagnetic materials. Recent work
has been involved with measuring the case depth in hardened steel samples.

Properties of Electricity
Since eddy current inspection makes use of electromagnetic induction, it is important to
know about the scientific principles of electricity and magnetism. For a review of these
principles, the Science of NDT materials on this Internet site may be helpful. A review
of the key parameters will be provided here.
Electricity

It is well known that one of the subatomic particles of an atom is the electron. Atoms
can and usually do have a number of electrons circling its nucleus. The electrons carry a
negative electrostatic charge and under certain conditions can move from atom to atom.
The direction of movement between atoms is random unless a force causes the electrons
to move in one direction. This directional movement of electrons due to some
imbalance of force is what is known as electricity.
Amperage
The flow of electrons is measured in units called amperes or ampsfor short. An amp is
the amount of electrical current that exists when a number of electrons, having one
coulomb of charge, move past a given point in one second. A coulomb is the charge
carried by 6.25 x 1018 electrons or 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons.
Electromotive Force

The force that causes the electrons to move in an electrical circuit is called the
electromotive force, orEMF. Sometimes it is convenient to think of EMF as electrical
pressure. In other words, it is the force that makes electrons move in a certain direction
within a conductor. There are many sources of EMF, the most common being batteries
and electrical generators.
The Volt
The unit of measure for EMF is the volt. One volt is defined as the electrostatic
difference between two points when one joule of energy is used to move one coulomb
of charge from one point to the other. A joule is the amount of energy that is being
consumed when one watt of power works for one second. This is also known as awatt-
second. For our purposes, just accept the fact that one joule of energy is a very, very
small amount of energy. For example, a typical 60-watt light bulb consumes about 60
joules of energy each second it is on.
Resistance
Resistance is the opposition of a body or substance to the flow of electrical current
through it, resulting in a change of electrical energy into heat, light, or other forms of
energy. The amount of resistance depends on the type of material. Materials with low
resistance are good conductors of electricity. Materials with high resistance are good
insulators.
Current Flow and Ohm's Law
Ohm's law is the most important, basic law of electricity. It defines the relationship
between the three fundamental electrical quantities: current, voltage, and resistance.
When a voltage is applied to a circuit containing only resistive elements (i.e. no coils),
current flows according to Ohm's Law, which is shown below.

I=V/R

Where:

I= Electrical Current
(Amperes)

V= Voltage (Voltage)

R= Resistance (Ohms)

Ohm's law states that the electrical current (I) flowing in an circuit is proportional to
the voltage (V) and inversely proportional to the resistance (R). Therefore, if the
voltage is increased, the current will increase provided the resistance of the circuit
does not change. Similarly, increasing the resistance of the circuit will lower the current
flow if the voltage is not changed. The formula can be reorganized so that the
relationship can easily be seen for all of the three variables.
The Java applet below allows the user to vary each of these three parameters in Ohm's
Law and see the effect on the other two parameters. Values may be input into the dialog
boxes, or the resistance and voltage may also be varied by moving the arrows in the
applet. Current and voltage are shown as they would be displayed on an oscilloscope
with the X-axis being time and the Y-axis being the amplitude of the current or voltage.
Ohm's Law is valid for both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). Note that
in AC circuits consisting of purely resistive elements, the current and voltage are
always in phase with each other.
Induction and Inductance
Induction

In 1824, Oersted discovered that current passing though a coil created a magnetic field
capable of shifting a compass needle. Seven years later, Faraday and Henry discovered
just the opposite. They noticed that a moving magnetic field would induce current in an
electrical conductor. This process of generating electrical current in a conductor by
placing the conductor in a changing magnetic field is called electromagnetic induction
or just induction. It is called induction because the current is said to be induced in the
conductor by the magnetic field.
Faraday also noticed that the rate at which the magnetic field changed also had an effect
on the amount of current or voltage that was induced. Faraday's Law for an uncoiled
conductor states that the amount of induced voltage is proportional to the rate of change
of flux lines cutting the conductor. Faraday's Law for a straight wire is shown below.

Where:
VL = the induced voltage in volts
dø/dt = the rate of change of magnetic flux in webers/second
Induction is measured in unit of Henries (H) which reflects this dependence on the rate
of change of the magnetic field. One henry is the amount of inductance that is required to
generate one volt of induced voltage when the current is changing at the rate of one
ampere per second. Note that current is used in the definition rather than magnetic field.
This is because current can be used to generate the magnetic field and is easier to
measure and control than magnetic flux.
Inductance

When induction occurs in an electrical circuit and affects the flow of electricity it is
calledinductance, L. Self-inductance, or simply inductance, is the property of a circuit
whereby a change in current causes a change in voltage in the same circuit. When one
circuit induces current flow in a second nearby circuit, it is known as mutual-
inductance. The image to the right shows an example of mutual-inductance. When an AC
current is flowing through a piece of wire in a circuit, an electromagnetic field is
produced that is constantly growing and shrinking and changing direction due to the
constantly changing current in the wire. This changing magnetic field will induce
electrical current in another wire or circuit that is brought close to the wire in the
primary circuit. The current in the second wire will also be AC and in fact will look
very similar to the current flowing in the first wire. An electrical transformer uses
inductance to change the voltage of electricity into a more useful level. In
nondestructive testing, inductance is used to generate eddy currents in the test piece.
It should be noted that since it is the changing magnetic field that is responsible for
inductance, it is only present in AC circuits. High frequency AC will result in greater
inductive reactance since the magnetic field is changing more rapidly.
Self-Inductance and Inductive Reactance
The property of self-inductance is a particular form of electromagnetic induction. Self
inductance is defined as the induction of a voltage in a current-carrying wire when the
current in the wire itself is changing. In the case of self-inductance, the magnetic field
created by a changing current in the circuit itself induces a voltage in the same circuit.
Therefore, the voltage is self-induced.
The term inductor is used to describe a circuit element possessing the property of
inductance and a coil of wire is a very common inductor. In circuit diagrams, a coil or
wire is usually used to indicate an inductive component. Taking a closer look at a coil
will help understand the reason that a voltage is induced in a wire carrying a changing
current. The alternating current running through the coil creates a magnetic field in and
around the coil that is increasing and decreasing as the current changes. The magnetic
field forms concentric loops that surround the wire and join to form larger loops that
surround the coil as shown in the image below. When the current increases in one loop
the expanding magnetic field will cut across some or all of the neighboring loops of
wire, inducing a voltage in these loops. This causes a voltage to be induced in the coil
when the current is changing.

By studying this image of a coil, it can be seen that the number of turns in the coil will
have an effect on the amount of voltage that is induced into the circuit. Increasing the
number of turns or the rate of change of magnetic flux increases the amount of induced
voltage. Therefore, Faraday's Law must be modified for a coil of wire and becomes the
following.
Where:
VL = induced voltage in volts
N = number of turns in the coil
dø/dt = rate of change of magnetic flux in
webers/second
The equation simply states that the amount of induced voltage (VL) is proportional to
the number of turns in the coil and the rate of change of the magnetic flux (dø/dt). In
other words, when the frequency of the flux is increased or the number of turns in the
coil is increased, the amount of induced voltage will also increase.
In a circuit, it is much easier to measure current than it is to measure magnetic flux, so
the following equation can be used to determine the induced voltage if the inductance
and frequency of the current are known. This equation can also be reorganized to allow
the inductance to be calculated when the amount of inducted voltage can be determined
and the current frequency is known.

Where:
VL = the induced voltage in volts
L = the value of inductance in henries
di/dt = the rate of change of current in amperes per second
Lenz's Law
Soon after Faraday proposed his law of induction, Heinrich Lenz developed a rule for
determining the direction of the induced current in a loop. Basically, Lenz's law states
that an induced current has a direction such that its magnetic field opposes the change in
magnetic field that induced the current. This means that the current induced in a
conductor will oppose the change in current that is causing the flux to change. Lenz's
law is important in understanding the property of inductive reactance, which is one of
the properties measured in eddy current testing.
Inductive Reactance
The reduction of current flow in a circuit due to induction is called inductive reactance.
By taking a closer look at a coil of wire and applying Lenz's law, it can be seen how
inductance reduces the flow of current in the circuit. In the image below, the direction of
the primary current is shown in red, and the magnetic field generated by the current is
shown in blue. The direction of the magnetic field can be determined by taking your
right hand and pointing your thumb in the direction of the current. Your fingers will then
point in the direction of the magnetic field. It can be seen that the magnetic field from
one loop of the wire will cut across the other loops in the coil and this will induce
current flow (shown in green) in the circuit. According to Lenz's law, the induced
current must flow in the opposite direction of the primary current. The induced current
working against the primary current results in a reduction of current flow in the circuit.
It should be noted that the inductive reactance will increase if the number of winds in
the coil is increased since the magnetic field from one coil will have more coils to
interact with.

Similarly to resistance, inductive reactance reduces the flow of current in a circuit.

However, it is possible to distinguish between resistance and inductive reactance in a
circuit by looking at the timing between the sine waves of the voltage and current of the
alternating current. In an AC circuit that contains only resistive components, the voltage
and the current will be in-phase, meaning that the peaks and valleys of their sine waves
will occur at the same time. When there is inductive reactance present in the circuit, the
phase of the current will be shifted so that its peaks and valleys do not occur at the same
time as those of the voltage. This will be discussed in more detail in the section on
circuits.
Mutual Inductance
The magnetic flux through a circuit can be related to the current in that circuit and the
currents in other nearby circuits, assuming that there are no nearby permanent magnets.
Consider the following two circuits.

The magnetic field produced by circuit 1 will intersect the wire in circuit 2 and create

current flow. The induced current flow in circuit 2 will have its own magnetic field

which will interact with the magnetic field of circuit 1. At some point P, the magnetic

field consists of a part due to i 1 and a part due to i2. These fields are proportional to
the currents producing them.

The coils in the circuits are labeled L1 and L2 and this term represents the self

inductance of each of the coils. The values of L1 and L2 depend on the geometrical

arrangement of the circuit (i.e. number of turns in the coil) and the conductivity of the

material. The constant M, called the mutual inductance of the two circuits, is dependent
on the geometrical arrangement of both circuits. In particular, if the circuits are far

apart, the magnetic flux through circuit 2 due to the current i 1 will be small and the
mutual inductance will be small. L 2 and M are constants.
We can write the flux, B through circuit 2 as the sum of two parts.

B2 = L2i2 + i1M

An equation similar to the one above can be written for the flux through circuit 1.

B1 = L1i1 + i2M

Though it is certainly not obvious, it can be shown that the mutual inductance is the
same for both circuits. Therefore, it can be written as follows:

M 1,2 = M2,1

How is mutual induction used in eddy current inspection?

In eddy current inspection, the eddy currents are generated in the test material due to
mutual induction. The test probe is basically a coil of wire through which alternating
current is passed. Therefore, when the probe is connected to an eddyscope instrument, it
is basically represented by circuit 1 above. The second circuit can be any piece of
conductive material.

When alternating current is passed through the coil, a magnetic field is generated in and
around the coil. When the probe is brought in close proximity to a conductive material,
such as aluminum, the probe's changing magnetic field generates current flow in the
material. The induced current flows in closed loops in planes perpendicular to the
magnetic flux. They are named eddy currents because they are thought to resemble the
eddy currents that can be seen swirling in streams.

The eddy currents produce their own magnetic fields that interact with the primary
magnetic field of the coil. By measuring changes in the resistance and inductive
reactance of the coil, information can be gathered about the test material. This
information includes the electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability of the
material, the amount of material cutting through the coils magnetic field, and the
condition of the material (i.e. whether it contains cracks or other defects.) The distance
that the coil is from the conductive material is called liftoff, and this distance affects the
mutual-inductance of the circuits. Liftoff can be used to make measurements of the
thickness of nonconductive coatings, such as paint, that hold the probe a certain distance
from the surface of the conductive material.
It should be noted that if a sample is ferromagnetic, the magnetic flux is concentrated
and strengthened despite opposing eddy current effects. The increase inductive
reactance due to the magnetic permeability of ferromagnetic materials makes it easy to
distinguish these materials from non ferromagnetic materials.
In the applet below, the probe and the sample are shown in cross-section. The boxes
represent the cross-sectional area of a group of turns in the coil. The liftoff distance and
the drive current of the probe can be varied to see the effects of the shared magnetic
field. The liftoff value can be set to 0.1 or less and the current value can be varied from
0.01 to 1.0. The strength of the magnetic field is shown by the darkness of the lines.
Circuits and Phase
A circuit can be thought of as a closed path in which current flows through the
components that make up the circuit. The current (i) obeys Ohm's Law, which is
discussed on the page on current flow. The simple circuit below consists of a voltage
source (in this case an alternating current voltage source) and a resistor. The graph
below the circuit diagram shows the value of the voltage and the current for this circuit
over a period of time. This graph shows one complete cycle of an alternating current
source. From the graph, it can be seen that as the voltage increases, the current does the
same. The voltage and the current are said to be "in-phase" since their zero, peak, and
valley points occur at the same time. They are also directly proportional to each other.

In the circuit below, the resistive component has been replaced with an inductor. When

inductance is introduced into a circuit, the voltage and the current will be "out-of-

phase," meaning that the voltage and current do not cross zero, or reach their peaks and

valleys at the same time. When a circuit has an inductive component, the current (i L)
o
will lag the voltage by one quarter of a cycle. One cycle is often referred to as 360 , so

o
it can be said that the current lags the voltage by 90 .
This phase shift occurs because the inductive reactance changes with changing current.
Recall that it is the changing magnetic field caused by a changing current that produces
inductive reactance. When the change in current is greatest, inductive reactance will be
the greatest, and the voltage across the inductor will be the highest. When the change in
current is zero, the inductive reactance will be zero and the voltage across the inductor
will be zero. Be careful not to confuse the amount of current with the amount of change
in the current. Consider the points where the current reaches it peak amplitude and
changes direction in the graph below (0o, 180o, and 360o). As the current is changing
directions, there is a split second when the change in current is zero. Since the change
in current is zero, no magnetic field is generated to produce the inductive reactance.
When the inductive reactance is zero, the voltage across the inductor is zero.

The resistive and inductive components are of primary interest in eddy current testing

since the test probe is basically a coil of wire, which will have both resistance and

inductive reactance. However, there is a small amount of capacitance in the circuits so a

mention is appropriate. This simple circuit below consists of an alternating current

c
voltage source and a capacitor. Capacitance in a circuit caused the current (i ) to lead

o
the voltage by one quarter of a cycle (90 current lead).
When there is both resistance and inductive reactance (and/or capacitance) in a circuit,
the combined opposition to current flow is known as impedance.
Impedance
Electrical Impedance (Z), is the total opposition that a circuit presents to alternating
current. Impedance is measured in ohms and may include resistance (R), inductive
reactance (XL), andcapacitive reactance (XC). However, the total impedance is not
simply the algebraic sum of the resistance, inductive reactance, and capacitive
reactance. Since the inductive reactance and capacitive reactance are 90o out of phase
with the resistance and, therefore, their maximum values occur at different times, vector
addition must be used to calculate impedance.
In the image below, a circuit diagram is shown that represents an eddy current
inspection system. The eddy current probe is a coil of wire so it contains resistance and
inductive reactance when driven by alternating current. The capacitive reactance can be
dropped as most eddy current probes have little capacitive reactance. The solid line in
the graph below shows the circuit's total current, which is affected by the total
impedance of the circuit. The two dashed lines represent the portion of the current that
is affected by the resistance and the inductive reactance components individually. It can
be seen that the resistance and the inductive reactance lines are 90o out of phase, so
when combined to produce the impedance line, the phase shift is somewhere between
zero and 90o. The phase shift is always relative to the resistance line since the
resistance line is always in-phase with the voltage. If more resistance than inductive
reactance is present in the circuit, the impedance line will move toward the resistance
line and the phase shift will decrease. If more inductive reactance is present in the
circuit, the impedance line will shift toward the inductive reactance line and the phase
shift will increase.
The relationship between impedance and its individual components (resistance and
inductive reactance) can be represented using a vector as shown below. The amplitude
of the resistance component is shown by a vector along the x-axis and the amplitude of
the inductive reactance is shown by a vector along the y-axis. The amplitude of the the
impedance is shown by a vector that stretches from zero to a point that represents both
the resistance value in the x-direction and the inductive reactance in the y-direction.
Eddy current instruments with impedance plane displays present information in this
format.

The impedance in a circuit with resistance and inductive reactance can be calculated
using the following equation. If capacitive reactance was present in the circuit, its value
would be added to the inductance term before squaring.

The phase angle of the circuit can also be calculated using some trigonometry. The
phase angle is equal to the ratio between the inductance and the resistance in the circuit.
With the probes and circuits used in nondestructive testing, capacitance can usually be
ignored so only inductive reactance needs to be accounted for in the calculation. The
phase angle can be calculated using the equation below. If capacitive reactance was
present in the circuit, its value would simply be subtracted from the inductive reactance
term.

or
Impedance and Ohm's Law
In previous pages, Ohm's Law was discussed for a purely resistive circuit. When there
is inductive reactance or capacitive reactance also present in the circuit, Ohm's Law
must be written to include the total impedance in the circuit. Therefore, Ohm's law
becomes:
I=V/Z
Ohm's law now simply states that the current (I), in amperes, is proportional to the
voltage (V), in volts, divided by the impedance(Z), in ohms.
Also note that when there is inductance in the circuit, the voltage and current are out of
phase. This is because the voltage across the inductor will be a maximum when the rate
of change of the current is greatest. For a sinusoidal wave form like AC, this is at the
point where the actual current is zero. Thus the voltage applied to an inductor reaches
its maximum value a quarter-cycle before the current does, and the voltage is said to
lead the current by 90o.
Depth of Penetration & Current Density

Eddy currents are closed loops of induced current circulating in planes perpendicular to
the magnetic flux. They normally travel parallel to the coil's winding and flow is limited
to the area of the inducing magnetic field. Eddy currents concentrate near the surface
adjacent to an excitation coil and their strength decreases with distance from the coil as
shown in the image. Eddy current density decreases exponentially with depth. This
phenomenon is known as the skin effect.
The skin effect arises when the eddy currents flowing in the test object at any depth
produce magnetic fields which oppose the primary field, thus reducing the net magnetic
flux and causing a decrease in current flow as the depth increases. Alternatively, eddy
currents near the surface can be viewed as shielding the coil's magnetic field, thereby
weakening the magnetic field at greater depths and reducing induced currents.
The depth that eddy currents penetrate into a material is affected by the frequency of the
excitation current and the electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability of the
specimen. The depth of penetration decreases with increasing frequency and increasing
conductivity and magnetic permeability. The depth at which eddy current density has
decreased to 1/e, or about 37% of the surface density, is called the standard depth of
penetration (d). The word 'standard' denotes plane wave electromagnetic field
excitation within the test sample (conditions which are rarely achieved in practice).
Although eddy currents penetrate deeper than one standard depth of penetration, they
decrease rapidly with depth. At two standard depths of penetration (2d), eddy current
density has decreased to 1/e squared or 13.5% of the surface density. At three depths
(3d), the eddy current density is down to only 5% of the surface density.
Since the sensitivity of an eddy current inspection depends on the eddy current density
at the defect location, it is important to know the strength of the eddy currents at this
location. When attempting to locate flaws, a frequency is often selected which places
the expected flaw depth within one standard depth of penetration. This helps to assure
that the strength of the eddy currents will be sufficient to produce a flaw indication.
Alternately, when using eddy currents to measure the electrical conductivity of a
material, the frequency is often set so that it produces three standard depths of
penetration within the material. This helps to assure that the eddy currents will be so
weak at the back side of the material that changes in the material thickness will not
affect the eddy current measurements.
To calculate the standard depth of penetration. The equation for this calculation is:

Where:

d = Standard Depth of Penetration (mm)

p = 3.14
f = Test Frequency (Hz)
m = Magnetic Permeability (H/mm)
s = Electrical Conductivity (% IACS)
Phase Lag
Phase lag is a parameter of the eddy current signal that makes it possible to obtain
information about the depth of a defect within a material. Phase lag is the shift in time
between the eddy current response from a disruption on the surface and a disruption at
some distance below the surface. The generation of eddy currents can be thought of as a
time dependent process, meaning that the eddy currents below the surface take a little
longer to form than those at the surface. Disruptions in the eddy currents away from the
surface will produce more phase lag than disruptions near the surface. Both the signal
voltage and current will have this phase shift or lag with depth, which is different from
the phase angle discussed earlier. (With the phase angle, the current shifted with respect
to the voltage.)
Phase lag is an important parameter in eddy current testing because it makes it possible
to estimate the depth of a defect, and with proper reference specimens, determine the
rough size of a defect. The signal produced by a flaw depends on both the amplitude and
phase of the eddy currents being disrupted. A small surface defect and large internal
defect can have a similar effect on the magnitude of impedance in a test coil. However,
because of the increasing phase lag with depth, there will be a characteristic difference
in the test coil impedance vector.
Phase lag can be calculated with the following equation. The phase lag angle
calculated with this equation is useful for estimating the subsurface depth of a
discontinuity that is concentrated at a specific depth. Discontinuities, such as a crack
that spans many depths, must be divided into sections along its length and a weighted
average determined for phase and amplitude at each position below the surface.
In
Radians
 In
Degrees

Where:

q=Phase Lag (Rad or Degrees)

x=Distance Below Surface (in or mm)
d=Standard Depth of Penetration (in or mm)

At one standard depth of penetration, the phase lag is one radian or 57o. This means that
the eddy currents flowing at one standard depth of penetration (d) below the surface, lag
the surface currents by 57o. At two standard depths of penetration (2d), they lag the
surface currents by 114o. Therefore, by measuring the phase lag of a signal the depth of
a defect can be estimated.
On the impedance plane, the liftoff signal serves as the reference phase direction. The
angle between the liftoff and defect signals is about twice the phase lag calculated with
the above equation. As mentioned above, discontinuities that have a significant
dimension normal to the surface, will produce an angle that is based on the weighted
average of the disruption to the eddy currents at the various depths along its length.
In the applet below, the relationship between the depth and dimensions of a
discontinuity and the rotation produced on the impedance plane is explored. The red
lines represent the relative strength of the magnetic field from the coil and the dashed
lines indicate the phase lag of the eddy currents induced at a particular depth.
Eddy Current Instruments

Eddy current instruments can be purchased in a large variety of configurations. Both

analog and digital instruments are available. Instruments are commonly classified by the
type of display used to present the data. The common display types are analog meter,
digital readout, impedance plane and time versus signal amplitude. Some instruments
are capable of presenting data in several display formats.
The most basic eddy current testing instrument consists of an alternating current source,
a coil of wire connected to this source, and a voltmeter to measure the voltage change
across the coil. An ammeter could also be used to measure the current change in the
circuit instead of using the voltmeter.

While it might actually be possible to detect some types of defects with this type of
equipment, most eddy current instruments are a bit more sophisticated. In the following
pages, a few of the more important aspects of eddy current instrumentation will be
discussed.
Resonant Circuits
Eddy current probes typically have a frequency or a range of frequencies that they are
designed to operated. When the probe is operated outside of this range, problems with
the data can occur. When a probe is operated at too high of a frequency, resonance can
occurs in the circuit. In a parallel circuit with resistance (R), inductance (XL) and
capacitance (XC), as the frequency increases XL decreases and XC increase. Resonance
occurs when XL and XC are equal but opposite in strength. At the resonant frequency,
the total impedance of the circuit appears to come only from resistance since XL and XC
cancel out. Every circuit containing capacitance and inductance has a resonant
frequency that is inversely proportional to the square root of the product of the
capacitance and inductance.

In eddy current probes and cables, it is commonly stated that capacitance is negligible.
However, even circuits not containing discrete components for resistance, capacitance,
and inductance can still exhibit their effects. When two conductors are placed side by
side, there is always some capacitance between them. Thus, when many turns of wire
are placed close together in a coil, a certain amount of stray capacitance is produced.
Additionally, the cable used to interconnect pieces of electronic equipment or
equipment to probes, often has some capacitance, as well as, inductance. This stray
capacitance is usually very small and in most cases has no significant effect. However,
they are not negligible in sensitive circuits and at high frequencies they become quite
important.
Bridges

The bridge circuit shown above is known as the Maxwell-Wien bridge (often called the
Maxwell bridge), and is used to measure unknown inductances in terms of calibrated
resistance and capacitance. Calibration-grade inductors are more difficult to
manufacture than capacitors of similar precision, and so the use of a simple
"symmetrical" inductance bridge is not always practical. Because the phase shifts of
inductors and capacitors are exactly opposite each other, a capacitive impedance can
balance out an inductive impedance if they are located in opposite legs of a bridge, as
they are here.
Unlike this straight Wien bridge, the balance of the Maxwell-Wien bridge is
independent of the source frequency. In some cases, this bridge can be made to balance
in the presence of mixed frequencies from the AC voltage source, the limiting factor
being the inductor's stability over a wide frequency range.

Using the equations above you can calculate appropriate values for C and R2 for a set
of probe values. Then, using your calculated values, balance the bridge. The
oscilloscope trace representing current (brightest green) across the top and bottom of
the bridge should be minimized (straight line).
In the simplest implementation, the standard capacitor (C) and the resistor in parallel
with it are made variable, and both must be adjusted to achieve balance. However, the
bridge can be made to work if the capacitor is fixed (non-variable) and more than one
resistor is made variable (at least the resistor in parallel with the capacitor, and one of
the other two). However, in the latter configuration it takes more trial-and-error
adjustment to achieve balance as the different variable resistors interact in balancing
magnitude and phase.
Another advantage of using a Maxwell bridge to measure inductance rather than a
symmetrical inductance bridge is the elimination of measurement error due to the mutual
inductance between the two inductors. Magnetic fields can be difficult to shield, and
even a small amount of coupling between coils in a bridge can introduce substantial
errors in certain conditions. With no second inductor to react within the Maxwell
bridge, this problem is eliminated.
Display - Complex Impedance Plane

Electrical Impedance (Z), is the total opposition that a circuit presents to an alternating
current. Impedance, measured in ohms, may include resistance (R), inductive reactance
(XL), andcapacitivereactance (XC). Eddy current circuits usually have only R and (XL)
components. As discussed in the page on impedance, the resistance component and the
reactance component are not in phase, so vector addition must be used to relate them
with impedance. For an eddy current circuit with resistance and inductive reactance
components, the total impedance is calculated using the following equation.

You will recall that this can be graphically displayed using the impedance plane
diagram as seen above. Impedance also has an associated angle, called the phase angle
of the circuit, which can be calculated by the following equation.

The impedance plane diagram is a very useful way of displaying eddy current data. As
shown in the figure below, the strength of the eddy currents and the magnetic
permeability of the test material cause the eddy current signal on the impedance plane to
react in a variety of different ways.
If the eddy current circuit is balanced in air and then placed on a piece of aluminum, the
resistance component will increase (eddy currents are being generated in the aluminum
and this takes energy away from the coil, which shows up as resistance) and the
inductive reactance of the coil decreases (the magnetic field created by the eddy
currents opposes the coil's magnetic field and the net effect is a weaker magnetic field
to produce inductance). If a crack is present in the material, fewer eddy currents will be
able to form and the resistance will go back down and the inductive reactance will go
back up. Changes in conductivity will cause the eddy current signal to change in a
different way.
When a probe is placed on a magnetic material such as steel, something different
happens. Just like with aluminum (conductive but not magnetic), eddy currents form,
taking energy away from the coil, which shows up as an increase in the coils resistance.
And, just like with the aluminum, the eddy currents generate their own magnetic field
that opposes the coils magnetic field. However, you will note for the diagram that the
reactance increases. This is because the magnetic permeability of the steel concentrates
the coil's magnetic field. This increase in the magnetic field strength completely
overshadows the magnetic field of the eddy currents. The presence of a crack or a
change in the conductivity will produce a change in the eddy current signal similar to
that seen withaluminum.
Display - Analog Meter

Analog instruments are the simplest of the instruments available for eddy current
inspections. They are used for crack detection, corrosion inspection, or conductivity
testing. These types of instruments contain a simple bridge circuit, which compares a
balancing load to that measured on the test specimen. If any changes in the test specimen
occur which deviate from normal you will see a movement on the instruments meter.
Analog meters such as the D'Arsonval design pictured in the applet below, must
"rectify" the AC into DC. This is most easily accomplished through the use of devices
called diodes. Without going into elaborate detail over how and why diodes work as
they do, remember that they each act like a one-way valve for electrons to flow. They
act as a conductor for one polarity and an insulator for another. Arranged in a bridge,
four diodes will serve to steer AC through the meter movement in a constant direction.
An analog meter can easily measure just a few microamperes of current and is well
suited for use in balancing bridges.
Absolute Probes

Absolute probes generally have a single test coil that is used to generate the eddy
currents and sense changes in the eddy current field. As discussed in the physics
section, AC is passed through the coil and this sets up an expanding and collapsing
magnetic field in and around the coil. When the probe is positioned next to a conductive
material, the changing magnetic field generates eddy currents within the material. The
generation of the eddy currents take energy from the coil and this appears as an increase
in the electrical resistance of the coil. The eddy currents generate their own magnetic
field that opposes the magnetic field of the coil and this changes the inductive reactance
of the coil. By measuring the absolute change in impedance of the test coil, much
information can be gained about the test material.
Absolute coils can be used for flaw detection, conductivity measurements, liftoff
measurements and thickness measurements. They are widely used due to their
versatility. Since absolute probes are sensitive to things such as conductivity,
permeability liftoff and temperature, steps must be taken to minimize these variables
when they are not important to the inspection being performed. It is very common for
commercially available absolute probes to have a fixed "air loaded" reference coil that
compensates for ambient temperature variations.

Differential Probes
Differential probes have two active coils usually wound in opposition, although they
could be wound in addition with similar results. When the two coils are over a flaw-
free area of test sample, there is no differential signal developed between the coils
since they are both inspecting identical material. However, when one coil is over a
defect and the other is over good material, a differential signal is produced. They have
the advantage of being very sensitive to defects yet relatively insensitive to slowly
varying properties such as gradual dimensional or temperature variations. Probe
wobble signals are also reduced with this probe type. There are also disadvantages to
using differential probes. Most notably, the signals may be difficult to interpret. For
example, if a flaw is longer than the spacing between the two coils, only the leading and
trailing edges will be detected due to signal cancellation when both coils sense the flaw
equally.
Reflection Probes
Reflection probes have two coils similar to a differential probe, but one coil is used to
excite the eddy currents and the other is used to sense changes in the test material.
Probes of this arrangement are often referred to as driver/pickup probes. The advantage
of reflection probes is that the driver and pickup coils can be separately optimized for
their intended purpose. The driver coil can be made so as to produce a strong and
uniform flux field in the vicinity of the pickup coil, while the pickup coil can be made
very small so that it will be sensitive to very small defects.

Some absolute and differential "transformer" type eddy current probes.

The through-transmission method is sometimes used when complete penetration of
plates and tube walls is required.

Hybrid Probes
An example of a hybrid probe is the split D, differential probe shown to the right. This
probe has a driver coil that surrounds two D shaped sensing coils. It operates in the
reflection mode but additionally, its sensing coils operate in the differential mode. This
type of probe is very sensitive to surface cracks. Another example of a hybrid probe is
one that uses a conventional coil to generate eddy currents in the material but then uses a
different type of sensor to detect changes on the surface and within the test material. An
example of a hybrid probe is one that uses a Halleffect sensor to detect changes in the
magnetic flux leaking from the test surface. Hybrid probes are usually specially
designed for a specific inspection application.
Probes - Configurations
Eddy current probes are classified by the configuration and mode of operation of the
test coils. The configuration of the probe generally refers to the way the coil or coils are
packaged to best "couple" to the test area of interest. Some of the common
classifications of probes based on their configuration include surface probes, bolt hole
probes, inside diameter (ID) probes, and outside diameter (OD) probes.

Surface Probes
Surface probes are usually designed to be handheld and are intended to be used in
contact with the test surface. Surface probes generally consist of a coil of very fine wire
encased in a protective housing. The size of the coil and shape of the housing are
determined by the intended use of the probe. Most of the coils are wound so that the axis
of the coil is perpendicular to the test surface. This coil configuration is sometimes
referred to as a pancake coil and is good for detecting surface discontinuities that are
oriented perpendicular to the test surface. Discontinuities, such as delaminations, that
are in a parallel plane to the test surface will likely go undetected with this coil
configuration.
Wide surface coils are used when scanning large areas for relatively large defects. They
sample a relatively large area and allow for deeper penetration. Since they do sample a
large area, they are often used for conductivity tests to get more of a bulk material
measurement. However, their large sampling area limits their ability to detect small
discontinuities.
Pencil probes have a small surface coil that is encased in a long slender housing to
permit inspection in restricted spaces. They are available with a straight shaft or with a
bent shaft, which facilitates easier handling and use in applications such as the
inspection of small diameter bores. Pencil probes are prone to wobble due to their
small base and sleeves are sometimes used to provide a wider base.
Bolt Hole Probes
Bolt hole probes are a special type of surface probe that is designed to be used with a
bolt hole scanner. They have a surface coil that is mounted inside a housing that matches
the diameter of the hole being inspected. The probe is inserted in the hole and the
scanner rotates the probe within the hole.

ID or Bobbin Probes
ID probes, which are also referred to as Bobbin probes or feed-through probes, are
inserted into hollow products, such as pipes, to inspect from the inside out. The ID
probes have a housing that keep the probe centered in the product and the coil(s)
orientation somewhat constant relative to the test surface. The coils are most commonly
wound around the circumference of the probe so that the probe inspects an area around
the entire circumference of the test object at one time.
OD or Encircling Coils
OD probes are often called encircling coils. They are similar to ID probes except that
the coil(s) encircle the material to inspect from the outside in. OD probes are commonly
used to inspect solid products, such as bars.
Probes - Shielding & Loading

One of the challenges of performing an eddy current inspection is getting sufficient eddy
current field strength in the region of interest within the material. Another challenge is
keeping the field away from nonrelevant features of the test component. The impedance
change caused by nonrelevant features can complicate the interpretation of the signal.
Probe shielding and loading are sometimes used to limit the spread and concentrate the
magnetic field of the coil. Of course, if the magnetic field is concentrated near the coil,
the eddy currents will also be concentrated in this area.
Probe Shielding

Probe shielding is used to prevent or reduce the interaction of the probe's magnetic field
with nonrelevent features in close proximity of the probe. Shielding could be used to
reduce edge effects when testing near dimensional transitions such as a step or an edge.
Shielding could also be used to reduce the effects of conductive or magnetic fasteners in
the region of testing.
Eddy current probes are most often shielded using magnetic shielding or eddy current
shielding. Magnetically shielded probes have their coil surrounded by a ring of ferrite
or other material with high permeability and low conductivity. The ferrite creates an
area of low magnetic reluctance and the probe's magnetic field is concentrated in this
area rather than spreading beyond the shielding. This concentrates the magnetic field
into a tighter area around the coil.
Eddy current shielding uses a ring of highly conductive but nonmagnetic material,
usually copper, to surround the coil. The portion of the coil's magnetic field that cuts
across the shielding will generate eddy currents in the shielding material rather than in
the nonrelevent features outside of the shielded area. The higher the frequency of the
current used to drive the probe, the more effective the shielding will be due to the skin
effect in the shielding material.
Probe Loading with Ferrite Cores

Sometimes coils are wound around a ferrite core. Since ferrite is ferromagnetic, the
magnetic flux produced by the coil prefers to travel through the ferrite as opposed to the
air. Therefore, the ferrite core concentrates the magnetic field near the center of the
probe. This, in turn, concentrates the eddy currents near thecenter of the probe. Probes
with ferrite cores tend to be more sensitive than air core probes and less affected by
probe wobble and lift-off.
Coil (Probe) Design
The most important feature in eddy current testing is the way in which the eddy currents
are induced and detected in the material under test. This depends on the design of the
probe. As discussed in the previous pages, probes can contain one or more coils, a
core and shielding. All have an important effect on the probe, but the coil requires the
most design consideration.
A coil consists of a length of wire wound in a helical manner around the length of a
former. The main purpose of the former is to provide a sufficient amount of rigidity in
the coil to prevent distortion. Formers used for coils with diameters greater than a
fewmillimeters (i.e. encircling and pancake coils), generally take the form of tubes or
rings made from dielectric materials. Small-diameter coils are usually wound directly
onto a solid former.
The region inside the former is called the core, which can consist of either a solid
material or just air. When the core is air or a nonconductive material, the probe is often
referred to as an air-core probe. Some coils are wound around a ferrite core which
concentrates the the coil's magnetic field into a smaller area. These coils are referred
to as "loaded" coils.
The wire used in an eddy current probe is typically made from copper or other
nonferrous metal to avoid magnetic hysteresis effects. The winding usually has more
than one layer so as to increase the value of inductance for a given length of coil. The
higher the inductance (L) of a coil, at a given frequency, the greater the sensitivity of
eddy current testing.
It is essential that the current through the coil is as low as possible. Too high a current
may produce:
● a rise in temperature, hence an expansion of the coil, which increases the
value of L.
● magnetic hysteresis, which is small but detectable when a ferrite core is used.
The value of L is given by:
 L = Kn2 p [ (ro2 - rc2) - µrrc2] µo / l

● ro is the mean radius of the coil.

● rc is the radius of the core.

● l is the length of the coil.

● n is the number of turns.

● µr is the relative magnetic permeability of the core.

● µo is the permeability of free space (i.e. 4 pi x 10-7 H/m).

● K is a dimensionless constant characteristic of the length and the external and

internal radii.
Impedance Matching
Eddy current testing requires us to determine the components of the impedance of the
detecting coil or the potential difference across it. Most applications require the
determination only of changes in impedance, which can be measured with a high degree
of sensitivity using an AC bridge. The principles of operation of the most commonly
used eddy current instruments are based on Maxwell's inductance bridge, in which the
components of the impedance of the detecting coil, commonly called a probe, are
compared with known variable impedances connected in series and forming the
balancing arm of the bridge.

The input to the bridge is an AC oscillator, often variable in both frequency and
amplitude. The detector arm takes the form of either a meter or a storage cathode-ray
oscilloscope, a phase-sensitive detector, a rectifier to provide a steady indication, and
usually an attenuator to confine the output indication within a convenient range. Storage
facilities are necessary in the oscilloscope in order to retain the signal from the detector
for reference during scanning with the probe.
The highest sensitivity of detection is achieved by properly matching the impedance of
the probe to the impedance of the measuring instrument. Thus, with a bridge circuit that
is initially balanced, a subsequent but usually small variation in the impedance of the
probe upsets the balance, and a potential difference appears across the detector arm of
the bridge.
Although the Maxwell inductance bridge forms the basis of most eddy current
instruments, there are several reasons why it cannot be used in its simplest form (i.e.
Hague, 1934), including the creation of stray capacitances, such as those formed by the
leads and leakages to earth. These unwanted impedances can be eliminated byearthing
devices and the addition of suitable impedances to produce one or more wide-band
frequency (i.e. low Q) resonance circuits. Instruments having a wide frequency range
(i.e. from 1 kHz to 2 MHz) may possess around five of these bands to cover the range.
The value of the impedance of the probe is therefore an important consideration in
achieving proper matching and, as a result, it may be necessary to change the probe
when switching from one frequency band to another.

Reference Standards
In eddy current testing, the use of reference standards in setting up the equipment is
particularly important since signals are affected by many different variables and slight
changes in equipment setup can drastically alter the appearance of a signal. As with
most other NDT methods, the most useful information is obtained when comparing the
results from an unknown object to results from a similar object with well characterized
features and defects. In almost all cases, eddy current inspection procedures require the
equipment to be configured using reference standards.
For crack detection, corrosion thinning and other material damage, reference standards
are used to setup the equipment to produce a recognizable signal or set of signals from a
defect or set of defects. In many cases, the appearance of a test signal can be related to
the appearance of a signal from a known defect on the reference standard to estimate the
size of a defect in the test component. Signals that vary significantly from the responses
produced by the reference standard must be further investigated to the determinethe
source of the signal.

The reference standard should be of the same material as the test article. If this is not
possible or practical, it should be of material that has the same electrical conductivity
and magnetic permeability. Component features (material thickness, geometry, etc.)
should be the same in the reference standard as those in the test region of interest. If the
reference standard is the type with intentional defects, these defects should be as
representative of actual defects in the test component as possible. The closer the
reference standard is to the actual test component, the better. However, since cracks and
corrosion damage are often difficult and costly to produce, artificial defects are
commonly used. Narrow notches produced with electron discharge machining (EDM)
and saw cuts are commonly used to represent cracks, and drilled holes are often used to
simulate corrosion pitting.
Common eddy current reference standards include:
● Conductivity standards.
● Flat plate discontinuity standards.
● Flat plate metal thinning standards (step or tapered wedges).

● Tube discontinuity standards.

● Tube metal thinning standards.

● Hole (with and without fastener) discontinuity standards.

Signal Filtering
Signal filtering is often used in eddy current testing to eliminate unwanted frequencies
from the receiver signal. While the correct filter settings can significantly improve the
visibility of a defect signal, incorrect settings can distort the signal presentation and
even eliminate the defect signal completely. Therefore, it is important to understand the
concept of signal filtering.
Filtering is applied to the received signal and, therefore, is not directly related to the
probe drive frequency. This is most easily understood when picturing a time versus
signal amplitude display. With this display mode, it is easy to see that the signal shape
is dependent on the time or duration that the probe coil is sensing something. For
example, if a surface probe is placed on the surface of conductor and rocked back and
forth, it will produce a wave like signal. When the probe is rocked fast, the signal will
have a higher frequency than when the probe is rocked slowly back and forth. The
signal does not need a wavelike appearance to have frequency content and most eddy
current signals will be composed of a large number of frequencies. Consider a probe
that senses a notch for 1/60th of a second. In a period of one second the probe could (in
theory) go over the notch 60 times, resulting in the notch signal having a frequency of 60
Hz. But, imposed on this same signal, could be the signal resulting from probe wobble,
electronic noise, a conductivity shift and other factors which occur at different
frequencies.

Filters Effects
The two standard filters found in most impedance plane display instruments are the
‘High Pass Filter’ (HPF) and ‘Low Pass Filter’ (LPF). Some instruments also have
a‘Band Pass Filter’ (BPF), which is a combination high and low pass filter. Filters are
adjusted in Hertz (Hz).
The HPF allows high frequencies to pass and filters out the low frequencies. The HPF
is basically filtering out changes in the signal that occur over a significant period of
time.
The LPF allows low frequency to pass and filters out the high frequency. In other
words, all portions of the signal that change rapidly (have a high slope) are filtered,
such as electronic noise.
In the image above, the gradual (low frequency) changes were first filtered out with a
HPF and then high frequency electronic noise was filtered with a LPF to leave a clearly
visible flaw indication. It should also be noted that since flaw indication signals are
comprised of multiple frequencies, both filters have a tendency to reduce the indication
signal strength. Additionally, scan speed must be controlled when using filters. Scan
over a flaw too slow and the HPF might filter out the flaw indication. Scan over the
flaw too fast and the LPF might eliminate the flaw indication.

Filter Settings
If the spectrum of the signal frequency and the signal amplitude or attenuation are
plotted, the filter responses can be illustrated in graphical form. The image to the right
shows the response of a LPF of 20Hz and a HPF of 40Hz. The LPF allows only the
frequencies in yellow to pass and the HPF only allow those frequencies in the blue area
to pass. Therefore, it can be seen that with these settings there are no frequencies that
pass (i.e. the frequencies passed by the LPF are filtered out by the HPF and visa versa).
 To create a window of acceptance for the signals, the filters
need to overlap. In the image to the right, the LPF has been adjusted to 60Hz and the
HPF to 10Hz. The area shown ingray is where the two frequencies overlap and the
signal is passed. A signal of 30Hz will get through at full amplitude, while a signal of
15Hz will be attenuated by approximately 50%. All frequencies above or below the
gray area (the pass band) will be rejected by one of the two filters.
Use of Filters
The main function of the LPF is to remove high frequency interference noise. This noise
can come from a variety of sources including the instrumentation and/or the probe itself.
The noise appears as an unstable dot that produces jagged lines on the display as seen
in the signal from a surface notch shown in the left image below. Lowering the LPF
frequency will remove more of the higher frequencies from the signal and produce a
cleaner signal as shown in the center image below. When using a LPF, it should be set to
the highest frequency that produces a usable signal. To reduce noise in large surface or
ring probes, it may be necessary to use a very low LPF setting (down to 10Hz). The
lower the LPF setting, the slower the scanning speed must be and the more closely it
must be controlled. The image on the right below shows a signal that has been clipped
due to using a scan speed too fast for the selected HPF setting.
The HPF is used to eliminate low frequencies which are produced by slow changes,
such as conductivity shift within a material, varying distance to an edge while scanning
parallel to it, or out-of-round holes in fastener hole inspection. The HPF is useful when
performing automated or semiautomatic scans to keep the signal from wandering too far
from the null (balance) point. The most common application for the HPF is the
inspection of fastener holes using a rotating scanner. As the scanner rotates at a constant
RPM, the HPF can be adjusted to achieve the desired effect.
Use of the HPF when scanning manually is not recommended, as keeping a constant
scanning speed is difficult, and the signal deforms and amplitude decreases. The size of
a signal decreases as the scan speed decreases and a flaw indication can be eliminated
completely if the scan is not done with sufficient speed. In the images below, it can be
seen that a typical response from a surface notch in aluminum without HPF (left image)
looks considerably different when the HPF is activated (right image). With the HPF,
looping signals with a positive and similar negative deflection are produced on the
impedance plane.

The use of a minimal HPF setting (1 or 2 Hz) may be used when manually scanning,
provided the operator can largely control the scan speed and becomes familiar with the
indication signal changes as scan speed is varied slightly. An good example of such an
application would be the manual scan of the radius of a wheel that is rotated by hand,
but the speed of rotation can be kept relatively constant.
Surface Crack Detection Using Sliding Probes
Many commercial aircraft applications involve the use of multiple fasteners to connect
the multi-layer skins. Because of the fatigue stress that is caused by the typical
application of any commercial aircraft, fatigue cracks can be induced in the vicinity of
the fastener holes. In order to inspect the fastener holes in an adequate amount of time,
sliding probes are an efficient method of inspection.
Sliding probes have been named so because they move over fasteners in a sliding
motion. There are two types of sliding probes, fixed and adjustable, which are usually
operated in the reflection mode. This means that the eddy currents are induced by the
driver coil and detected by a separate receiving coil.
Sliding probes are one of the fastest methods to inspect large numbers of fastener holes.
They are capable of detecting surface and subsurface discontinuities, but they can only
detect defects in one direction. The probes are marked with a detection line to indicate
the direction of inspection. In order to make a complete inspection there must be two
scans that are orthogonal (90 degrees) to each other.
Probe Types
Fixed Sliding Probes
These probes are generally used for thinner material compared to the adjustable probes.
Maximum penetration is about 1/8 inch. Fixed sliding probes are particularly well
suited for finding longitudinal surface or subsurface cracks such as those found in lap
joints. Typical frequency range is from 100 Hz to 100 kHz.
Adjustable Sliding Probes
These probes are well suited for finding subsurface cracks in thick multi-layer
structures, like wing skins. Maximum penetration is about 3/4 inch. The frequency range
for adjustable sliding probes is from 100 Hz to 40 kHz.
Adjustable probes, as the name implies, are adjustable with the use of spacers, which
will change the penetration capabilities. The spacer thickness between the coils is
normally adjusted for the best detection. For tangential scans or 90 degree scanning
with an offset from the center, a thinner spacer is often used.

The spacer thickness range can vary from 0 (no spacer) for inspections close to the
surface and small fastener heads to a maximum of about 0.3 inch for deep penetration
with large heads in the bigger probe types. A wider spacer will give more tolerance to
probe deviation as the sensitive area becomes wider but the instrument will require
more gain. Sliding probes usually penetrate thicker materials compared to the donut
probes.
Reference Standards
Reference/calibration standards for setup of sliding probes typically consist of three or
four aluminum plates that are fastened together within a lap joint type configuration.
EDM notches or naturally/artificially- induced cracks are located in the second or third
layer of the standard.
Reference standards used should be manufactured from the same material type, alloy,
material thickness, and chemical composition that will be found on the aircraft
component to be inspected. Sizes and tolerances of flaws introduced in the standards
are usually regulated by inspection specifications.
Inspection Variables
Liftoff Signal Adjustment
Liftoff is normally adjusted to be relatively horizontal. The term "relatively horizontal"
is used here because the liftoff signal often appears a curved line rather than a straight
line. Sometimes liftoffcan be a sharp curve and may need to be adjusted to run slightly
upwards before moving downwards. See Figures 1 and 2.

Scan Patterns
A typical scan is centralized over the fastener head and moves along the axis of the
fastener holes. This scan is generally used to detect cracks positioned along the axis of
the fastener holes. For detecting cracks located transverse or 90 degrees from the axis
of the fastener holes, a scan that is 90 degrees from the axis of the fastener holes is
recommended.
Signal Interpretation
When the probe moves over a fastener hole with a crack, the indication changes and
typically will create a larger vertical movement. The vertical amplitude of the loop
depends on the crack length, with longer cracks giving higher indications.
If the crack is in the far side of the fastener, as the probe moves over it, the dot will
follow the fastener line first but will move upwards (clockwise) as it goes over the
crack. If the crack is in the near side, it will be found first and the dot will move along
the crack level before coming down to the fastener level.
If two cracks on opposite sides of the fastener hole are present, the dot will move
upwards to the height by the first crack length and then come back to the fastener line
and balance point. If the second crack is longer than the first one, the dot will move
even higher and complete the loop (clockwise) before going down to the balance point.
See Figures 3 and 4.

Probe Scan Deviation

Most probes are designed to give a narrow indication for a good fastener hole so that
the loops from the cracks are more noticeable. Some probes and structures can give
wider indications and a similar result can be obtained if the probe is not straight when it
approaches the fastener. It is important to keep the probe centralized over the fastener
heads. Doing this will give you a maximum indication for the fastener and a crack.
If the probe deviates from the center line, the crack indication will move along the loop
that we saw in Figure 5 and is now present in Figure 6. The crack indication is at "a"
when the probe is centralized and moves toward "b" as it deviates in one direction, or
"c" as it deviates in the opposite direction. Point "b" gives an important indication even
if it loses a small amount of amplitude it has gained in phase, giving a better separation
angle. This is because we deviated to the side where the crack is located.

Crack Angle Deviation

A reduction in the crack indication occurs when the crack is at an angle to the probe
scan direction. This happens if the crack is not completely at 90 degrees to the normal
probe scan or changes direction as it grows. Both the fixed and adjustable sliding
probes are capable of detecting cracks up to about 30 degrees off angle. See Figures 7
and 8.

Electrical Contact
When inspecting fasteners that have just been installed or reference standards that have
intimate contact with the aluminumskin plate, it is not unusual to obtain a smaller than
normal indication. In some extreme cases, the fastener indication may disappear almost
completely. This is due to the good electrical contact between the fastener and the skin.
This condition allows the eddy currents to circulate without encountering a boundary,
and therefore, no obstacle or barrier. Because of this effect, it is recommended to paint
the holes before fastener installation.
Tube Inspection

Eddy current inspection is often used to detect corrosion, erosion, cracking and other
changes in tubing. Heat exchangers and steam generators, which are used in power
plants, have thousands of tubes that must be prevented from leaking. This is especially
important in nuclear power plants where reused, contaminated water must be prevented
from mixing with fresh water that will be returned to the environment. The contaminated
water flows on one side of the tube (inside or outside) and the fresh water flows on the
other side. The heat is transferred from the contaminated water to the fresh water and
the fresh water is then returned back to is source, which is usually a lake or river. It is
very important to keep the two water sources from mixing, so power plants are
periodically shutdown so the tubes and other equipment can be inspected and repaired.
The eddy current test method and the related remote field testing method provide high-
speed inspection techniques for these applications.

A technique that is often used involves feeding a differential bobbin probe into the
individual tube of the heat exchanger. With the differential probe, no signal will be seen
on the eddy current instrument as long as no metal thinning is present. When metal
thinning is present, a loop will be seen on the impedance plane as one coil of the
differential probe passes over the flawed area and a second loop will be produced
when the second coil passes over the damage. When the corrosion is on the outside
surface of the tube, the depth of corrosion is indicated by a shift in the phase lag. The
size of the indication provides an indication of the total extent of the corrosion damage.
Note the different signal responses provided by the two probes. Also note that the
absolute probe is much more sensitive to dings and the build up of magnetite on the
outside of the tube than the differential probe is.
Conductivity Measurements

One of the uses of eddy current instruments is for the measurement of electrical
conductivity. The value of the electrical conductivity of a metal depends on several
factors, such as its chemical composition and the stress state of its crystalline structure.
Therefore, electrical conductivity information can be used for sorting metals, checking
for proper heat treatment, and inspecting for heat damage.
The technique usually involves nulling an absolute probe in air and placing the probe in
contact with the sample surface. For nonmagnetic materials, the change in impedance of
the coil can be correlated directly to the conductivity of the material. The technique can
be used to easily sort magnetic materials from nonmagnetic materials but it is difficult to
separate the conductivity effects from the magnetic permeability effects, so conductivity
measurements are limited to nonmagnetic materials. It is important to control factors that
can affect the results such as the inspection temperature and the part geometry.

Conductivity changes with temperature so measurements should be made at a constant

temperature and adjustments made for temperature variations when necessary. The
thickness of the specimen should generally be greater than three standard depths of
penetration. This is so the eddy currents at the back surface of the sample are
sufficiently weaker than the variations in the specimen thickness that are not seen in the
measurements.
Generally large pancake type, surface probes are used to get a value for a relatively
large sample area. The instrument is usually setup such that a ferromagnetic material
produces a response that is nearly vertical. Then, all conductive but nonmagnetic
materials will produce a trace that moves down and to the right as the probe is moved
toward the surface. Think back to the discussion on the impedance plane and these type
of responses make sense. Remember that inductive reactance changes are plotted along
the y-axis and resistance changes are plotted in the x-axis. Since ferromagnetic
materials will concentrate the magnetic field produced by a coil, the inductive reactance
of the coil will increase. The effects on the signal from the magnetic permeability
overshadow the effects from conductivity since they are so much stronger.
When the probe is brought near a conductive but nonmagnetic material, the coil's
inductive reactance goes down since the magnetic field from the eddy currents opposes
the magnetic field of the coil. The resistance in the coil increases since it takes some of
the coil's energy to generate the eddy currents and this appears as additional resistance
in the circuit. As the conductivity of the materials being tested increases, the resistance
losses will be less and the inductive reactance changes will be greater. Therefore, the
signals will be come more vertical as the conductivity increases, as shown in the image
above.
To sort materials using an impedance plane device, the signal from the unknown sample
must be compared to a signal from a variety of reference standards. However, there are
devices available that can be calibrated to produce a value for electrical conductivity
which can then be compared to published values of electrical conductivity in MS/m or
percent IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard). Please be aware that the
conductivity of a particular material can vary significantly with slight variations in the
chemical composition and, thus, a conductivity range is generally provided for a
material. The conductivity range for one material may overlap with the range of a
second material of interest, so conductivity alone can not always be used to sort
materials. The electrical conductivity values for a variety of materials can be found in
the material properties reference tables.
Verification of Heat Treatment

With some materials, such as solution heat treatable aluminumalloys, conductivity

measurements are often made verifying that parts and materials have received the
proper heat treatment. High purity aluminum is soft and ductile, and gains strength and
hardness with the addition of alloying elements. A few such aluminum alloys are the
2000 series (2014, 2024, etc.), 6000 series (6061, 6063, etc.), and 7000 series (7050,
7075, etc.). The 2xxx series aluminumalloys have copper, the 6xxx series have
magnesium, and the 7xxx have zinc as their major alloying elements.
Heat treatment of aluminum alloys is accomplished in two phases - solution heat
treatment and then aging. In the solution heat treatment step, the alloys are heated to an
elevated temperature to dissolve the alloying elements into solution. The metal is then
rapidly cooled or quenched to “freeze” the atoms of the alloying elements in the lattice
structure of the aluminum. This distorts and stresses the structure, making electron
movement more difficult, thereby decreasing the electrical conductivity. In this
condition, the alloys are still relatively soft but start to gain strength as the alloying
elements begin to precipitate out of solution to form extremely small particles that
impede the movement of dislocations within the material. The formation of the
precipitates can be controlled for many alloys by heating and holding the material at an
elevated temperature for a period of time (artificial aging). As the alloying elements
precipitate out of solid solution, the conductivity of the material gradually increases. By
controlling the amount of precipitated particles within the aluminum, the properties can
be controlled to produce peak strength or some combinations of strength and corrosion
resistance. Sometimes, the material must be annealed or put into the softest, most ductile
condition possible in order to perform forming operations. Annealing allows all of the
alloying elements to precipitate out of solution to form a coarse, widely spaced
precipitate. The electrical conductivity is greatest when the material is in the annealed
condition.
Since solution heat-treated and aged materials are stronger, components can be made
using less material. A lighter or more compact design is often of great importance to the
designer and well worth the cost of the heat treating process. However, think of the
consequences that could arise if a component that was supposed to be solution heat-
treated and aged somehow left the manufacturing facility and was put into service
unheat-treated or annealed. This is a real possibility since heat-treated aluminum parts
look exactly likeunheat-treated parts. Consider 2024 aluminum as an example. Select
tensile properties and its electrical conductivity for various heat treatment conditions
are given in the following table.
Properties for Alclad 2024 Aluminum

Heat Treatment Ultimate Yield Strength Electrical

Condition Strength Conductivity

Annealed (O) 26 ksi (180 11 ksi (75 50 % IACS

MPa) MPa)

Solution Heat Treated 64 ksi (440 42 ksi (290 30 % IACS

and Naturally Aged MPa) MPa)
(T42)

Solution Heat 70 ksi (485 66 ksi (455 38 % IACS

Treated,Coldworked MPa) MPa)
and Artificially Aged
(T861)
It can be seen that the yield strength for the material is 42kilopounds/square inch (ksi)
(290 MPa) in the solution heat-treated and naturally aged condition (T42 condition).
The yield strength can be increased to 66 ksi (455 MPa) when coldworked and
artificially aged (T861 condition). But in the annealed condition, the yield strength is
reduced to 11 ksi (75 MPa). If an annealed part were accidentally used where a part in
the T42 or T861 was intended, it would likely fail prematurely. However, a quick check
of the conductivity using an eddy current instrument of all parts prior to shipping would
prevent this from occurring.
Thickness Measurements of Thin Material

Eddy current techniques can be used to perform a number of dimensional measurements.

The ability to make rapid measurements without the need for couplant or, in some cases
even surface contact, makes eddy current techniques very useful. The type of
measurements that can be made include:
● thickness of thin metal sheet and foil, and of metallic coatings on metallic and
nonmetallic substrate
● cross-sectional dimensions of cylindrical tubes and rods

● thickness of nonmetallic coatings on metallic substrates

Corrosion Thinning of Aircraft Skins

One application where the eddy current technique is commonly used to measure
material thickness is in the detection and characterization of corrosion damage on the
skins of aircraft. Eddy current techniques can be used to do spot checks or scanners can
be used to inspect small areas. Eddy current inspection has an advantage over
ultrasound in this application because no mechanical coupling is required to get the
energy into the structure. Therefore, in multi-layered areas of the structure like lap
splices, eddy current can often determine if corrosion thinning is present in buried
layers.
Eddy current inspection has an advantage over radiography for this application because
only single sided access is required to perform the inspection. To get a piece of film on
the back side of the aircraft skin might require removing interior furnishings, panels, and
insulation which could be very costly. Advanced eddy current techniques are being
developed that can determine thickness changes down to about three percent of the skin
thickness.

Thickness Measurement of Thin Conductive Sheet, Strip and Foil

Eddy current techniques are used to measure the thickness of hot sheet, strip and foil in
rolling mills, and to measure the amount of metal thinning that has occurred over time
due to corrosion on fuselage skins of aircraft. On the impedance plane, thickness
variations exhibit the same type of eddy current signal response as a subsurface defect,
except that the signal represents a void of infinite size and depth. The phase rotation
pattern is the same, but the signal amplitude is greater. In the applet, the lift-off curves
for different areas of the taper wedge can be produced by nulling the probe in air and
touching it to the surface at various locations of the tapered wedge. If a line is drawn
between the end points of the lift-off curves, a comma shaped curve is produced. As
illustrated in the second applet, this comma shaped curve is the path that is traced on the
screen when the probe is scanned down the length of the tapered wedge so that the
entire range of thickness values are measured.
When making this measurement, it is important to keep in mind that the depth of
penetration of the eddy currents must cover the entire range of thicknesses being
measured. Typically, a frequency is selected that produces about one standard depth of
penetration at the maximum thickness. Unfortunately, at lower frequencies, which are
often needed to get the necessary penetration, the probe impedance is more sensitive to
changes in electrical conductivity. Thus, the effects of electrical conductivity cannot be
phased out and it is important to verify that any variations of conductivity over the
region of interest are at a sufficiently low level.
Measurement of Cross-sectional Dimensions of Cylindrical Tubes and Rods
Dimensions of cylindrical tubes and rods can be measured with either OD coils or
internal axial coils, whichever is appropriate. The relationship between change in
impedance and change in diameter is fairly constant, except at very low frequencies.
However, the advantages of operating at a higher normalized frequency are twofold.
First, the contribution of any conductivity change to the impedance of the coil becomes
less important and it can easily be phased out. Second, there is an increase in
measurement sensitivity resulting from the higher value of the inductive component of
the impedance. Because of the large phase difference between the impedance vectors
corresponding to changes in fill-factor and conductivity (and defect size), simultaneous
testing for dimensions, conductivity, and defects can be carried out.
Typical applications include measuring eccentricities of the diameters of tubes and rods
and the thickness of tube walls. Long tubes are often tested by passing them at a constant
speed through encircling coils (generally differential) and providing a close fit to
achieve as high a fill-factor as possible.
An important application of tube-wall thickness measurement is the detection and
assessment of corrosion, both external and internal. Internal probes must be used when
the external surface is not accessible, such as when testing pipes that are buried or
supported by brackets. Success has been achieved in measuring thickness variations in
ferromagnetic metal pipes with the remote field technique.
Thickness Measurement of Thin Conductive Layers
It is also possible to measure the thickness of a thin layer of metal on a metallic
substrate, provided the two metals have widely differing electrical conductivities (i.e.
silver on lead where s= 67 and 10 MS/m, respectively). A frequency must be selected
such that there is complete eddy current penetration of the layer, but not of the substrate
itself. The method has also been used successfully for measuring thickness of very thin
protective coatings of ferromagnetic metals (i.e. chromium and nickel) on non-
ferromagnetic metal bases.
Depending on the required degree of penetration, measurements can be made using a
single-coil probe or a transformer probe, preferably reflection type. Small-diameter
probe coils are usually preferred since they can provide very high sensitivity and
minimize effects related to property or thickness variations in the underlying base metal
when used in combination with suitably high test frequencies. The goal is to confine the
magnetizing field, and the resulting eddy current distribution, to just beyond the thin
coating layer and to minimize the field within the base metals.

Thickness Measurements of Non Conducting Coatings on

Conductive Materials
The thickness of nonmetallic coatings on metal substrates can be determined simply
from the effect of liftoff on impedance. This method has widespread use for measuring
thickness of paint and plastic coatings. The coating serves as a spacer between the
probe and the conductive surface. As the distance between the probe and the conductive
base metal increases, the eddy current field strength decreases because less of the
probe's magnetic field can interact with the base metal. Thicknesses between 0.5 and 25
µm can be measured to an accuracy between 10% for lower values and 4% for higher
values. Contributions to impedance changes due to conductivity variations should be
phased out, unless it is known that conductivity variations are negligible, as normally
found at higher frequencies.
Fairly precise measurements can be made with a standard eddy current flaw detector
and a calibration specimen. The probe is nulled in air and the direction of the lift-off
signal is established. The location of the signal is marked on the screen as the probe is
placed on the calibration specimen in areas of decreasing coating thickness. When the
probe is placed on the test surface, the position of the signal will move from the air null
position to a point that can be correlated to the calibration markings.

Specialized eddy current coating thickness detectors are also available and are often
pocket-sized with the probe resembling a small pencil. They are usually operated by a
small battery and provide a digital read-out in the appropriate units. Calibration
adjustments, some of which are laid down by standards such as BS EN 2360 (1995) and
ASTM B 244 and E 376, may be assisted by the use of an inbuilt microprocessor.
Advanced Techniques - Scanning
Eddy current data can be collected using automated scanning systems to improve the
quality of the measurements and to construct images of scanned areas. The most
common type of scanning is line scanning where an automated system is used to push the
probe at a fixed speed. Line scan systems are often used when performing tube
inspections or aircraft engine blade slot inspections, where scanning in one dimension
is needed. The data is usually presented as a strip chart recording. The advantage of
using a linear scanning system is that the probe is moved at a constant speed, so
indications on the strip chart can be correlated to a position on the part being scanned.
As with all automated scanning systems, operator variables, such as wobble of the
probe, are reduced.
Two-dimensional scanning systems are used to scan a two-dimensional area. This could
be a scanning system that scans over a relatively flat area in a X-Y raster mode, or it
could be a bolt hole inspection system that rotates the probe as it is moved into the hole.
The data is typically displayed as a false-color plot of signal strength or phase angle
shift as a function of position, just like an ultrasonic C-scan presentation. Shown below
is a portable scanning system that is designed to work on the skins of aircraft fuselage
and wing sections.

Listed below are some automated scanning advantages:

 ● minimizes changes in liftoff or fill factor resulting from probe wobble, uneven
surfaces, and eccentricity of tubes caused by faulty manufacture or damage
● accurate indexing

● repeatability
● high resolution mapping

Multiple Frequency Techniques

Multiple frequency eddy current techniques simply involve collecting data at several
different frequencies and then comparing the data or mixing the data in some way.
Why the need for multiple frequencies? - Some background information
The impedance of an eddy current probe may be affected by the following factors:
● variations in operating frequency
● variations in electrical conductivity and the magnetic permeability of a object
or structure, caused by structural changes such as grain structure, work hardening,
heat treatment, etc.
● changes in liftoff or fill factor resulting from probe wobble, uneven surfaces,
and eccentricity of tubes caused by faulty manufacture or damage
● the presence of surface defects such as cracks, and subsurface defects such as
voids and nonmetallic inclusions
● dimensional changes, for example, thinning of tube walls due to corrosion,
deposition of metal deposits or sludge, and the effects of denting
● the presence of supports, walls, and brackets
● the presence of discontinuities such as edges
Several of these factors are often present simultaneously. In the simple case where
interest is confined to detecting defects or other abrupt changes in geometry, a
differential probe can be used to eliminate unwanted factors, providing they vary in a
gradual manner. For example, variations in electrical conductivity and tube thinning
affect both coils of a differential probe simultaneously. However, if unwanted
parameters that occur abruptly are affecting the measurements, they can sometimes be
negated by mixing signals collected at several frequencies.
An example of where a multi-frequency eddy current inspection is used is in heat
exchanger tube inspections. Heat exchanger assemblies are often a collection of tubing
that have support brackets on the outside. When attempting to inspect the full wall
thickness of the tubing, the signal from the mounting bracket is often troublesome. By
collecting a signal at the frequency necessary to inspect the full thickness of the tube and
subtracting a second signal collected at a lower frequency (which will be more
sensitive to the bracket but less sensitive to features in the tubing), the effects of the
bracket can be reduced.
There are a number of commercially available multi-frequency eddy current
instruments. Most operate at only two frequencies at a time but some units can collect
data at up to four frequencies simultaneously. Multi-frequency measurements can also
be made using an impedance analyzer but this equipment is generally not suitable for
field measurements. A typical impedance analyzersystem is shown below. The interest
in pulsed eddy current instruments is largely due to their ability to, in essence, perform
multi-frequency measurements very quickly and easily.
Swept Frequency
Swept frequency eddy current techniques involve collecting eddy current data at a wide
range of frequencies. This usually involves the use of a specialized piece of equipment
such as an impedanceanalyzer, which can be configured to automatically make
measurements over a range of frequencies. The swept-frequency technique can be
implemented with commercial equipment but it is a difficult and time-consuming
measurement. The advantage of a swept frequency measurement is that depth
information can be obtained since eddy current depth of penetration varies as a function
of frequency.
Swept frequency measurements are useful in applications such as measuring the
thickness of conductive coatings on conductive base metal, differentiating between
flaws in surface coatings and flaws in the base metal and differentiating between flaws
in various layers of built-up structure. An example application would be the lap splice
of a commercial aircraft. Swept frequency measurements would make it possible to tell
if cracking was occurring on the outer skin, the inner skin or a double layer. Below is an
example of the type of data that can be obtained from swept-frequency measurements.

Data from swept-frequency measurements on two heats of material.

It can be seen that in the etched condition, the material labeled"good" exhibits a much
different signal response than the materiallabeled "bad." It can also be seen that a
frequency of around 2.2 MHz provides the largest separation in the curves. Therefore,
this frequency should be used if a single frequency is used to sort the parts made from
the two metals.
Pulsed Eddy Current Inspection
Conventional eddy current inspection techniques use sinusoidal alternating electrical
current of a particular frequency to excite the probe. The pulsed eddy current technique
uses a step function voltage to excite the probe. The advantage of using a step function
voltage is that it contains a continuum of frequencies. As a result, the electromagnetic
response to several different frequencies can be measured with just a single step. Since
the depth of penetration is dependent on the frequency of excitation, information from a
range of depths can be obtained all at once. If measurements are made in the time
domain (that is by looking at signal strength as a function of time), indications produced
by flaws or other features near the inspection coil will be seen first and more distant
features will be seen later in time.
To improve the strength and ease interpretation of the signal, a reference signal is
usually collected, to which all other signals are compared (just like nulling the probe in
conventional eddy current inspection). Flaws, conductivity, and dimensional changes
produce a change in the signal and a difference between the reference signal and the
measurement signal that is displayed. The distance of the flaw and other features
relative to the probe will cause the signal to shift in time. Therefore, time gating
techniques (like in ultrasonic inspection) can be used to gain information about the
depth of a feature of interest.

The use of pulsed eddy currents has long been considered for testing metals (Libby,
1971) and it has been applied to operations in specialized areas, such as in the nuclear
energy industry, where testing equipment is often constructed to order. However,
significant progress in this direction has taken place only recently after appropriate
advances in technology (Krzwosz et al. 1985; Sather, 1981; Waidelich, 1981; Wittig and
Thomas 1981), but at the time of writing, commercial equipment was not yet available.
The method has the potential advantages of greater penetration, the ability to locate
discontinuities from time-of-flight determinations, and a ready means of multi-frequency
measurement. At present, it does not generally have the precision of the conventional
methods. The apparatus is somewhat complicated in design and not readily usable by
the average operator who is experienced with the conventional eddy current equipment.
Its main successes are in the testing of thin metal tubes and sheets, as well as metal
cladding for measuring thickness and for the location and sizing of internal defects.
When comparing the pulsed method with the conventional eddy current technique, the
conventional technique must be regarded as a continuous wave method for which
propagation takes place at a single frequency or, more correctly, over a very narrow
frequency bandwidth. With pulse methods, the frequencies are excited over a wide
band, the extent of which varies inversely with the pulse length; this allows multi-
frequency operation. As found with ultrasonic testing, the total amount of energy
dissipated within a given period of time is considerably less for pulsed waves than for
continuous waves having the same intensity. For example, with pulses containing only
one or two wavelengths and generated 1000 times per second, the energy produced is
only about 0.002 of that for continuous waves having the same amplitude. Thus,
considerably higher input voltages can be applied to the exciting coil for pulsed
operation than for continuous wave operation.
Pulsed waves can reasonably be expected to allow penetration of measurable currents
through a metal sample to a depth of about 10 times the standard penetration depth,
provided a suitable probe is used (i.e. a shielded ferrite-cored coil, see section 5.3).
Therefore, penetration is possible through a 2 mm thick plate at frequencies of 1-3 kHz
for non-ferromagnetic metals having corresponding electrical conductivities ranging
from 60 down to 20MS/m. However, with an unmagnetized steel plate 2 mm thick,
where sigma = 5 MS/m and µr = 100, the maximum frequency for through-penetration is
only 100 Hz.
Pulsed eddy currents may be generated by a thyratron connected in series with the
exciting coil through a capacitor (e.g. Waidelich, 1981). A direct voltage, on the order
of 1200 V, slowly charges the capacitance and when the thyratron conducts there is an
abrupt discharge through the coil in which free-damped harmonic oscillations occur.
This is repeated periodically (i.e. at 1 kHz), so as to propagate the eddy current pulses
through the metal.
The currents are detected by a receiving probe located either adjacent to or on the
opposite side of the metal sample from the exciting probe when access is possible. The
range of propagated frequencies depends on the logarithmic decrement of the exciting
circuit, and because the speed of the waves is a function of frequency, dispersion takes
place and the pulse changes in shape as it progresses through the metal. As one would
expect, the height of the peak and its time delay can be related to the thickness of the
metal. Waidelich reports a maximum penetration of 90 mm foraluminum sheet and 10
mm for steel. For 6 mm thick sheets, the peak value of the received pulse voltage was
13 V for aluminum but only 20 mV for steel. Krzwosz et al. (1985) has shown how
pulses that result from the presence of internal simulated defects produce broadening
with an increase in depth.
The frequency content of the pulses depends on their lengths, and in the extreme,
contains continuous spectra ranging from less than 100 Hz to 1 or 2 kHz. By performing
a Fourier transformation, the pulse obtained by the receiving probe can be displayed in
the form of the variation of amplitude (or phase) with frequency. By sampling different
delay times within a pulse, different parts of the spectrum can be evaluated (Sather,
1981). If both amplitude and phase are measured, two parameters (i.e. presence of
defects, variations in tube thickness, and changes in fill-factor or liftoff) can be
evaluated for each frequency selected in the same way as with the multi-frequency
method, although, at present, with a lower degree of precision.
Dodd et al.(1988) has designed and developed a pulsed magnetic saturation method for
the eddy current testing of ferromagnetic metals. The DC field pulses are generated by
passing a high-current pulse through an electromagnet so as to produce saturation in the
metal object; the pulse length is made equal to the thickness of the object, thus ensuring
complete eddy current penetration where feasible. The DC pulse, on the order of 1 ms
duration, simultaneously produces an eddy current pulse, which is detected by a probe;
the output of the probe is characteristic of the material being tested.
This technique has the advantage of producing high magnetic peak powers with low
average powers, thus keeping any heating of the test sample down to an acceptable
level. It has been applied successfully to the internal testing of the walls of steel steam
generator tubes, and tubes of diameter 10.9 mm and wall thickness 5 mm have been
examined with peak powers of 500 kW. Small defects close to the external surfaces can
be detected, and by taking advantage of the multi-frequency properties of pulsed eddy
currents, their indications can be resolved from those that originate from other
characteristics of the tubes.
More recent work on the use of pulsed eddy currents has been reported by Gibbs and
Campbell (1991), who inspected cracks under fasteners in aluminum aircraft structures.
Here, a Hall element was used as a receiver. Radial position, approximate depth, and
relative size of defects hidden under fastener heads could be determined in countersunk
areas for defect depths of up to 7 mm for nonferrous fasteners and 14 mm for ferrous
fasteners.
Lebrun et al. (1975) reported the detection of deep cracks in ferromagnetic samples
using an emission coil excited by square pulses of high intensity and employing highly
sensitive magneto-resistive sensors to measure the resultant magnetic fields. Defects of
1 mm x 1 mm could be detected at a depth of 5 mm and 3 mm x 4 mm at a depth of 20
mm
Remote Field Sensing
Eddy current testing for external defects in tubes where external access is not possible
(e.g. buried pipelines), is conducted using internal probes. When testing thick-walled
ferromagnetic metal pipes with conventional internal probes, very low frequencies (e.g.
30 Hz for a steel pipe 10 mm thick) are necessary to achieve the through-penetration of
the eddy currents. This situation produces a very low sensitivity of flaw detection. The
degree of penetration can, in principle, be increased by the application of a saturation
magnetic field. However, because of the large volume of metal present, a large
saturation unit carrying a heavy direct current may be required to produce an adequate
saturating field.
The difficulties encountered in the internal testing of ferromagnetic tubes can be greatly
alleviated with the use of the remote field eddy current method. This method provides
measurable through penetration of the walls at three times the maximum frequency
possible with the conventional direct field method. This technique was introduced by
Schmidt in 1958. Although it has been used by the petroleum industry for detecting
corrosion in their installations since the early 1960s, it has only recently evoked general
interest. This interest is largely because the method is highly sensitive to variations in
wall thickness, but relatively insensitive to fill-factor changes. The method has the
added advantage of allowing equal sensitivities of detection at both the inner and outer
surfaces of a ferromagnetic tube. It cannot, however, differentiate between signals from
these respective surfaces.
GUIDED WAVE TESTING (GW) Overview
Guided wave ultrasonic testing detects corrosion damage and other defects over long 33 ft. – 165 ft. distances
in piping. A special tool (transducer ring) is clamped around the pipe and transmits guided waves in both
directions along the pipe. Reflected signals from defects and pipe features such as welds are received by the
transducer ring and sent to the main unit.

IRISNDT APPLIES GWT

○ To inspect sleeved road crossings

○ To detect riser soil to air interface losses

○ To detect corrosion under insulation

○ To detect pipe rack support losses in-situ

○ To inspect buried or insulated lines

○ Difficult to access locations

ADVANTAGES

○ Inspects difficult to access components without extensive excavation or insulation

removal
○ Portable, battery powered equipment

○ Sophisticated software routines help identify and classify pipe signals

○ Rigorous operator training and certification with individual electronic keys which
activate the system and track its use by each operator
○ Embedded reporting software allows the operator to analyze the results and
produce a report on the spot

LIMITATIONS

Under good conditions, GWT inspects over 330 ft. in uncoated, straight, gas-filled pipe. Most pipes will have
an effective range of between 16 ft – 165 ft. The effective range for guided wave inspection can be inhibited
by:

Coatings: bitumen wrap and similar heavy coatings cause high attenuation

○ Pipe condition: corroded line scatters UT signals and reduces range

○ Features such as welds: each weld typically reflects 20% of the signal. Without
other limiting factors, six welds set the maximum span
○ Bends and ‘T’ junctions: these features distort the signal, one generally cannot
test beyond a bend
○ Pipe contents: high viscosity liquids or waxy deposits attenuate the signal

○ Special soil conditions can cause additional attenuation and are usually associated
with wrapped pipe
○ Complementary inspection methods are needed to map out and size flaws found
with GWT; typically UT and RT are used
ON SITE REQUIREMENTS

○ Access to the pipe and removal of about 3.3 ft. length of insulation at each test
point

○ Surface preparation is usually limited to scraping off loose paint and scale
○ At least 3 inch of clearance between pipes to fit the tool
○ Pipe surface temperature must generally be below 160 °F although high
temperature 644 °F rings are available
GWT FUNDAMENTALS

Ultrasonic signals are swept over a full frequency range, in both directions from the GWT tool, in a single
shot. In addition to faster, more efficient data acquisition, having all the data in a single file makes analysis
faster and more certain. Sophisticated processing and analysis software allows trained operators to interpret
these signals and report their findings. Special, wide frequency probes are available for cases such as buried
pipe where attenuation is too high over the standard frequency range.
Enhanced Focusing Capability (EFC) rings (pipe 4 inch and above) improve defect characterization and
provides colour coded C-scan type maps of the pipe. In effect, the EFC processing focuses on all reflectors
over the entire range of the shot. This improves sensitivity as well as making the guided wave data more
understandable to the end user.
Ground Penetrating Radar
What is Ground Penetrating Radar?
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a non-destructive geophysical method that produces a continuous cross-
sectional profile or record of subsurface features, without drilling, probing, or digging. The GPR cross-section
shows the ground surface at the top of the profile, and the reflections of subsurface geologic units and objects
to a certain depth at the bottom.
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) profiles are used for evaluating the location and depth of buried objects and
to investigate the presence and continuity of natural subsurface conditions and features.
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a tool for indirectly looking at underground objects (such as graves), gravel
and sand layers, and other underground structures. The information or data received by GPR is like an x-ray
or map of the underground. In fact, GPR uses electromagnetic (EM) waves, as x-ray machines do, but GPR
uses radio waves, which have a longer wavelength (see Figure 1). The wavelength, or the length of one wave,
is the fundamental difference between the forms of electromagnetic energy. For example, the wavelength of
x-rays range from about 10 billionths of a meter to about 10 trillionths of a meter, whereas radio waves can be
a few meters long.
How GPR Works

Ground penetrating radar operates by transmitting pulses of ultra-high frequency radio waves (microwave
electromagnetic energy) down into the ground through a transducer (also called an antenna). The ground
penetrating radar antenna (transducer) is pulled along the ground by hand or behind an ATV or a vehicle. The
transmitted energy is reflected from various buried objects or distinct contacts between different earth
materials. The antenna then receives the reflected waves and stores them in the digital control unit. The
control unit registers the reflections against two-way travel time in nanoseconds and then amplifies the signals.
The output signal voltage peaks are plotted on the ground penetrating radar profile as different colour bands by
the digital control unit.

How Deep Can GPR Go Into the Ground?

 The depth to which ground penetrating radar waves can reach beneath the ground surface is mainly
dependent on two conditions: 1) the type of soil or rock in the GPR survey area, and 2) the frequency of the
antenna used. Ground penetrating radar can reach depths of up to 100 feet (30 meters) in low conductivity
materials such as dry sand or granite. Moist clays, shale, and other high conductivity materials, may attenuate
or absorb GPR signals, greatly decreasing the depth of penetration to 3 feet (1 meter) or less.
The depth of penetration is also determined by the GPR antenna used. Antennas with low frequencies of from
100 to 200 MHz obtain subsurface reflections from deeper depths (about 25 to 100 feet or more), but have
low resolution. These low frequency antennas are used for investigating the geology of a site, such as for
locating sinkholes or fractures, and to locate large, deeply buried objects.
Antennas with higher frequencies of from 400 to 1,500 MHz obtain reflections from shallow depths (0 to
about 14 feet), and have high resolution. These high frequency antennas are used to investigate surface soils
and to locate small or large, shallow, buried objects, such as utilities, gravesites, and also rebar in concrete.
GeoModel, Inc. conducts ground penetrating radar surveys using a SIR-3000 digital control unit and various
antennas with frequencies ranging from 100 to 1,500 MHz The Geo Model, Inc. principals have over 50 years
of combined experience and conduct GPR surveys nationwide.

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a tool for

indirectly looking at underground objects (such as
graves), gravel and sand layers, and other
underground structures. The information or data
received by GPR is like an x-ray or map of the
underground. In fact, GPR uses electromagnetic Figure 1. The electromagnetic spectrum, and the
(EM) waves, as x-ray machines do, but GPR uses definition of a wavelength. Wavelengths become
radio waves, which have a longer wavelength (see shorter as the spectrum moves from radio waves
Figure 1). The wavelength, or the length of one to gamma rays. (Modified on 9/21/98 from
wave, is the fundamental difference between the
forms of electromagnetic energy. For example, the
wavelength of x-rays range from about 10
billionths of a meter to about 10 trillionths of a
meter, whereas radio waves can be a few meters Figure 2. GPR antennae with frequencies and
long. length labeled. Handles, transmitter, and receiver
GPR antennae are on the 25 MHz antennae. (Photo by Brian
To collect GPR data, two antennae are repeatedly Thayer.)
placed along the ground surface at a constant
interval. Unlike a radio or TV antenna, GPR
antennae usually look like two skis that vary in
length from less than ½ meter long to 4 or more
meters long as shown in Figure 2. Different length
antennae send different frequency waves into the
ground. Frequency is the number of wavelengths
per second, measured in Hertz; radio waves are
measured in millions of wavelengths per second, Figure 3. Higher frequency waves will complete
which is called megahertz (MHz). The wavelength wavelengths more often than lower frequency.
for each antenna is approximately equal to the
antenna length in most underground material.
Figure 3 compares different frequency antennae
and the waves they produce. The 200 MHz wave
completes four wavelengths in the same amount
of time that the 100 MHz wave completes two
wavelengths, which is why 200 MHz has been
designated as higher frequency. The higher
frequency enables 200 MHz waves to pick up
more layers, yielding higher resolution data.

The GPR process

Figure 4 shows the GPR equipment ready for
operation. The transmitter antenna begins the
process by sending EM waves in to the ground.
While in the ground, the EM waves are reflected
off underground layers and objects, as illustrated in
Figure 5. The receiver antenna receives the waves
Figure 4. Each GPR trace involves the four steps that reflect off the layers and measures the travel
outlined above. The steps take just a few seconds time and wave strength. The measurements are
and the equipment is then moved along a path at a sent through fiber-optic cables to computer
constant interval (the process requires a second equipment that converts the measurements into an
person to move the antennae). (Photo courtesy of image like Figure 6, which is from a sand dune in
Harry Jol.) North Carolina. Measurements are made at a
constant interval for tens or hundreds of meters to
ensure accurate representation of the area being
examined.
GPR applications
GPR is applied in a variety of fields, from cemetery
management to archeology to mining. Perhaps one
Figure 5. Illustration of the step-by-step GPR of the most interesting applications of GPR was in
process showing how EM waves reflect off Norway where seven victims of the 1918 Spanish
reflectors (layers) in the ground. (Modified from Jol Flu were buried; that flu is considered the deadliest
and Smith, 1991. Ground penetrating radar of virus that the world has ever known. What is
northern lacustrine deltas. Canadian Journal of unique about the graves in Norway is that the
Earth Sciences, 28, 1939-1947.) bodies are buried where a portion of the ground is
permanently frozen and they are likely to be
preserved as a result. A project planned to use
GPR to determine the depth of the graves; if the
 graves were found to be below the active
permafrost, the layer that thaws every summer,
then the bodies would be worthy to study because
the virus would probably be preserved as well.
Because there have been reoccurrences of deadly
flu viruses, scientists could use information found in
the Norwegian graves to prevent the next outbreak
(Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Dead Zone." The New
Yorker, Sept. 29, 1997).
Figure 6. A GPR profile of a dune in North For more information on the Spanish Flu project,
Carolina. Notice the continuity of the water table visit the following sites:
reflection. (Wenell and Havholm, unpublished data,
1998.)

Why GPR Technology?

- GPR technology can locate any pipes / structures / objects: metallic and non-
metallic (PVC, concrete, etc.)
- GPR is non-destructive and non-invasive, revealing a wealth of internal
detail without the need for coring or breaking out reducing associated risks
and costs;
- GPR complements the surface inspection with a documentable and precise
(quan titatively interpretable) image of the underground.

IDS evolved the concept of standard ground penetrating radar introducing the concept of multi-
frequency, multi-channel ground penetrating systems.

Why use an array of antennas?

- High Quality: the close spacing of the antennas enable an accurate and homogenous 3D reconstruction of
the subsurface giving to the user the ability to see shape and size of buried objects.
- Productivity: using more antennas combined with positioning system can save time in the field; to
accurately reconstruct the path of the underground in complex situations;
- Safety: array solution can be towed by vehicles, no need of time consuming and dangerous field surveys on
roads.
IDS GPR Products Offering: Aladdin, Opera Duo, RIS Hi-BrigHT, RIS Hi-Pave, RIS MF Hi-Mod, RIS One
& RIS Plus, SRS SafeRail System, Stream EM, Stream X.

2. Interferometric Radar

Monitoring structure movements and vibrations (bridges, buildings, dams, historical monuments, towers etc.)
and ground movements (mine walls, landslides, glaciers, land subsidence…) is an increasingly important task
for today’s construction and geotechnical engineers.
IDS Interferometric Radar Solutions are developed to make it easy.
IDS Interferometric radar solutions, embodied by the IBIS range of products, provide innovative and unique
solutions for remote, long range, continuous real-time inspectionof the above mentioned areas, spanning
from structures to geological environments, by measuring the phase difference of reflected waves to provide a
detailed image of all displacements.
Remote sensing, displacement accuracy, real-time one-dimensional simultaneous mapping of all
displacement detected on the structure, fast installation and operation,
Laser Testing Methods
Laser Testing includes three techniques, Holography,Shearography and Profilometry. As the method name
implies, all three techniques user lasers to perform the inspections.

LM TECHNIQUES
Holographic Testing
Holographic Testing uses a laser to detect changes to the surface of a part as it deforms under induced stress
which can be applied as mechanical stress, heat, pressure, or vibrational energy. The laser beam scans across
the surface of the part and reflects back to sensors that record the differences in the surface created by that
stress. The resulting image will be a topographical map-like presentation that can reveal surface deformations
in the order of 0.05 to 0.005 microns without damage to the part. By comparing the test results with an
undamaged reference sample, holographic testing can be used to locate and evaluate cracks,
delaminations,disbonds, voids and residual stresses.

Laser Profilometry
Laser Profilometry uses a high-speed rotating laser light source, miniature optics and a computer with high-
speed digital signal processing software. The ID surface of a tube is scanned in two dimensions and the
reflected light is passed through a lens that focuses that light onto a photo-detector, generating a signal that is
proportional to the spot's position in its image plane. As the distance from the laser to the ID surface changes,
the position of the focal spot on the photo-detector changes due to parallax, generating a high resolution three-
dimensional image of the part surface that represents the surface topography of the part. This technique can
be used to detect corrosion, pitting, erosion and cracks in pipes and tubes.
Laser Shearography
Laser Shearography applies laser light to the surface of the part being tested with the part at rest (non-
stressed) and the resulting image is picked up by a charge-coupled device (CCD) and stored on a computer.
The surface is then stressed and a new image is generated, recorded and stored. The computer then
superimposes the two patterns and if defects such as voids or disbonds are present, the defect can be
revealed by the patterns developed. Discontinuities as small as a few micrometres in size can be detected in
this manner.

The benefits of laser-ultrasonic testing

- Non-contact and remote, allowing inspection of samples at high temperature, e.g. during
welding with restricted access
Small and adjustable footprint
- Enables inspection of small and complex geometries

- High frequency capable of detecting very small flaws

 - Laser beam scanning method for full coverage of inspection samples

Applications for laser-ultrasonic testing

- Industrial in-process measurements on hot, hazardous, remote samples which may be
moving at high speeds

- High-resolution measurement of small parts

- Inspection of complex structures

- laser-ultrasonic projects involving the inspection of friction stir welds, laser material
depositing andcomposite materials
 Leak Testing
What is a Leak?

A leak is a flow of gas (or liquid) through the wall of a vessel (via an
imperfection such as a hole, crack or bad seal).
Leaks require a pressure difference to generate the flow; they always go from
higher pressure to lower pressure.
Leaks are pictured as going from positive pressure (inside an object) to outside
(at atmospheric pressure).
This is not always the case (a leak could be from atmosphere to inside an
evacuated object), but it helps to think about it this way because the units and
terminology are based on this model.
Leak Testing - what units do you use?

For leaks of air into atmosphere, units are usually expressed as mm3 or cm3 (cc)
per second or minute. So 16.6 mm3/sec = 1 cm3/min.

A bubble under water is about 30 - 50 mm3, so 1 bubble per second is about 30

mm3/sec or 2 cm3/min.
A standard unit of leakage which takes account of air pressure is the mbarl/sec.
(Millibar-litre per second). A leak into atmosphere of 1 mbarl/sec is equivalent
to a volume leak of 1000 mm3/sec.
Leak Testing - what technique should be used?
Key questions at the start of any leak test requirement are:-

What size is the component and what is it’s internal volume? Is there access
to inside or is it
a sealed unit?

What is the leak limit? Is it rigid or

flexible?

Does it have hidden internal volumes that may affect leak Are parts at
 measurements? ambient
temperature?

Are the parts clean and dry? What is the

surface finish
of any sealing
surfaces?
Based on the acceptable leak rate limit (shown in ml/sec) alone the following test
method can be used

Tracer Gas Flow Rate

Water Submersal / Dunk Tank

High Vacuum Helium Air Decay

10-9 10-8 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 1 5

Leak Testing - generic systems

pressure/vacuum

The test piece and the reference volume are simultaneously

pressurised (or evacuated) to a preset pressure. The air in
the system is then allowed to stabilise, with the supply
valves all closed. The Differential Pressure Transducer is
automatically zeroed.
After this stabilisation time, the pressure change in the test
piece is compared to the pressure change in the reference
 volume, using the Transducer. If the test piece is leaking,
the difference will increase and be measured, an alarm
limit may be set for a pass/fail decision.
The sequence is fully automatic, the accuracy and
sensitivity of the system is defined by the method of setting
the preset pressure together with the quality and type of
control valves and Differential Pressure Transducer.

helium systems

A vacuum pump evacuates the test chamber and test piece

simultaneously to a preset vacuum. At this preset level, the
chamber and the test piece are isolated and the chamber
evacuated further to a very low pressure. A positive pressure
variation is therefore created between the test piece and the
chamber.
Helium gas is then introduced into the test piece, often in a
10% concentration. A Mass Spectrometer analyses a sample
from the chamber as the vacuum continues to be drawn. The
Mass Spectrometer measures the helium leakage and sets the
pass/fail decision.
The test piece pressure is often compared to the chamber
pressure before dosing with helium, to avoid saturating the
Mass Spectrometer in the event of a gross leak

LEAK DETECTION METHODS AND

DEFINING THE SIZES OF LEAKS
ABSTRACT
There is a constantly growing need for products and technologies that for their realisation require hermetically
closed elements, vessels and tubes. Envelopes with greater or smaller vacuum tightness had to assure a
satisfactory isolation between external atmosphere and inside over- or underpressure. Crytical leak spots in
closed systems are usually: connections, gaskets, welded and brazed joints, defects in material etc. Regarding
to quality demands in different production processes, technical people very often encounter with standards for
tightness testing. Wishing to state if an element or system meets with corresponding standards we have to be
familiar with the procedures enabling the following appointments:

- question if there is leakage or not

- settlement of the leak size
- detection of leak locality

For solving the mentioned problems different treatments and techniques are known but among them there is
no anuniversal method, Each testing is suitable only for a selected leak rate or for fixed forms and
technologies. Our article presents the leak types, their sizes and various leak detection techniques.
Keywords: tightness, leakage, trace gas, helium mass spectrometer leak detector, hermetic sealing

1. INTRODUCTION
● The words "leak" and "leakage" appear in the field of vessels' hermetical closing and do not
confront only with vacuum technologists but also engineers working with high pressures. A leak
means an unintended crack, hole or porosity in an enveloping wall or joint which must contain or
exclude different fluids and gases allowing the escape of closed medium. The basic functions of leak
detection are the localization and size measurement of leaks in sealed products and systems For
majority of examples, a leak test procedure is a quality control step to assure a device integrity, and is
one-time non destructivetest.
● Typical products in which the leak detection has to be used are: vacuum chambers, TV- , and
other cathode tubes, hermetically sealed electronic components, pressure vessels, aerosol containers,
vacuum thermal isolation (e.g. dewars), pumps, refrigerating systems, chemical and nuclear plants,
beverage cans, products containing metal bellows, electron microscopes, peace makers, etc.
● In spite of modem technologies it is practically impossible to manufacture a sealed enclosure or
system that can be guaranteed to be leak proof without first being tested. The main question is: what
is the maximum acceptable leak rate consistent with reasonable performance life of the product.

● We can distinguish different types of leak sources.

● Leaks caused by defects in the containing envelope. For example a too thin wall of a plastic
bottle becomes microscopic cracked at enough high pressure difference, or in canning industry if the
score mark is too deep in ring pull-tab can top, or porous cast in machine housing metallurgy, etc.
 ● Leaks in newly manufactured products are most commonly imperfect joints or seals by which
various parts are assembled to form the final article. There are known demountable and fixed joints.
Between them the most often used are welds, brazed and soldered joints glass-to-metal and ceramic-
to-metal seals, O-rings and other gaskets, etc.

● Materials permitting gas diffusion and permeationthrough the wall.

● Virtual leak, a special type of leak in vacuum technique, which is not really a leak but is the
internal source of gas or vapor. These are cavities in a chamber wall with thin connections to the
inner vessel space such as improper welds, closed threads and holes etc.

2. LEAK SIZES AND MEASUREMENTS OF LEAK RATES

The shapes of leaks (cracks, fissures, porosity, damages, etc ... )are very different, unknown and non-uniform.
Therefore it is impossible to measure their sizes with any geometrical dimension except of course in the case of an
ideal or artificial leak as used for calibration. How then to define the leak size? A generally accepted method became
the observation of gas or fluid flow through it in certain conditions of temperature and pressure difference.
Consequently leak rates can be defined in two ways:

○ in terms of the application, e.g.: 3 g of refrigerant R-12 in 2 years at 5 bar, or 65 m of oil

per year at 60 � C at atmospheric pressure, etc...
○ in terms of vacuum leak detection method, e.g.: 2 mbar pressure increase in I hour or 3x
10-7 mbar/s helium (using He-detection method)
Each of the mentioned examples gives a legitimate description of leak rate but the generally accepted unit is the last
one because of very simple and understandable helium leak detection. Its efficiency is the result of a fierce and highly
competitive developments within the last 15-20 years.
The basic experiment explaining the leakage of hermetic system (increasing pressure method) is presented in Figure 1.
The tested vessel or system with known volume (Vo) is by a valve connected to pump. After evacuation the
connecting valve should be closed and then the pressure in volume registered for a suitable long time period. There are
more possibilities: system is tight and clean (a), fight and not clean (b), not tight and clean, i.e.: ideal leak (c), not tight
and not clean, i.e.: combination of leak and degassing.
As we can see in each case (except for a tight vessel) we have pressure increase and regarding to the shape of
diagram we can conclude the type of leak. Using the curve inclination data the leak size can be determined by the
following formula:
Q = ^p * Vo/^ t (mbarl/s)

This simple test helps us to describe the situation at the beginning of leak tracing procedure. Very similar test can be
realized by pressurizing the the system (and detecting the pressure decay) but gives only data on leak size and is not
used so often.
The leak rate Q does not only depend on the geometric dimensions (diameter, length) of the leak but also on the
physical properties of the gas (or the liquid), such as viscosity, relative molecular mass and on the pressure difference.
For example: in the same environment conditions helium flows through orifices 2.7 times faster than air. Because of
different results if the same leak is measured by various mediums it must be always noted with which gas a testing
was performed.
The maximum acceptable leak rate for a given product depends on the nature of product. Since the cost of leak
detection (and manufacturing too hermetic envelopes) increases in inverse proportion to a leak rate, it follows that
testing for unnecessary small leaks causes unnecessary rise of production costs. Some examples of tolerated leaks in
different elements and systems are shown in Table 1. We can see very wide range of sizes: from great with some
tenths mbar l/s in rough vacuum devices, to million- and more- times smaller in hermetically closed electronic elements.
It is possible to state there are no ideal products without leakage. We only can demand they have leaks smaller than
the specified leak.

Table 1. Leak rate specification for various elements and systems

Element or System Max. permissible Leakage Remark

chemical process equipment 10-1 to 1 mbar l/s great process flows

beverage can bottom 10-5 to 10-6 mbar l/s retention of CO2

dynamic pumped vacuum s. 10-5 to 10-7 mbar l/s permanent pumping

IC-package 10-7 to 10-8 mbar l/s

pacemaker cca 10-9 mbar l/s long time implanted in body

closed vacuum elements 10-8 to 10-10 mbar l/s e.g. TV- and Xray- tubes

3. LEAK DETECTION METHODS

A few leak detection techniques are known. Their performances regarding to detecting sensitivity are presented in Fig
2. Because of their advantages we shall concentrate attention on the helium mass spectrometer techniques but at first
a short description of others is presented,
The spark coil technique uses a high voltage or Tesla cod and sparkling point to create the electromagnetic radiation
which causes the generation of glow discharge in neighbouring evacuated ampoules. Normally it is possible only in non
metalenvelopes, that means first of all in glass and plastic elements or tubing. Drawing the leak antenna along the
tested element we can see plasma inside and coming to the leak, a sharp arc passage between plasma and antenna
appears. The defect spot is very clearly marked and a skilled person can from the colour of plasma also estimate the
inner pressure. This simple method however has a number drawbacks; since besides the restricted application it is also
to be avoided because of radio disturbances.
Pressure change method uses pressure gauges which are ordinary used to monitor the system performance.
Suspected leak sites can be squirted with a solvent (i.e. acetone or similar) while watching the gauge for a pressure
rise that occurs when the solvent enters the leak. This method has limited sensitivity (depending also on the type of
pressure measurement cell) and some shortcomings (possibility of solvent freezing causestemporary stuffing of leak,
solvents may attack vacuum grease and elastomer gaskets).

Figure 1. Testing of tightness by increasing pressure method and various possible results

Bubble test ---- --- - ----- ----- ----- -----

(soap --- --- - -- -- -- ->
painting) -

Bubble test ---- --- - ----- -->

(air, water) --- --- - --
-

Bubble test ---- --- - ----- ----- --->

(He, alcohol --- --- -- --
-

He sniffer ---- --- - ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- --->
--- --- - -- -- -- -- -- --
-

Halogen ---- --- - ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ->

sniffer --- --- - -- -- -- -- --
-

Pressure ---- --- - ----- ----

decay --- --- - -- >
-

Acoustical ---- --- - ----- ----- ->

--- --- - -- --
-

Vacuum ---- --- - ----- ----- ----

decay --- --- - -- -- >
-

Spark tester ---- --- - ----- -----

--- --- - -- ->
 -

Thermal ---- --- - -----

conductivity --- ->

Radioisotope ---- --- - ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------
--- --- - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- >
-

Halogen ---- - ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

detector -- -- -- -- -- -- ->

Mass ---- -- - ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------ ------
spectrometer --- - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - >

Dye ---- --- - ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

penetrant --- --- - -- -- -- -- ->
-

mbarl/s 100 10 1 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4 10-5 10-6 10-7 10-8 10-9 10-10 10-11 10-12

Figure 2. Sensitivity ranges of various leak detection methods

Overpressure methods can be performed by fluid or gas with which the tested element must be filled. As a
fluid usually the water from house installation is used. Observing the outside surface the wetted areas show us
great leaks and smaller ones up to approx. I mbarl/s. Testing with gas, the vessel is subjected to overpressure
of some bars (depending on material and wall thickness) and immersed into the water. At leaks the gas
bubbles begin to escape. In this manner the leaks up to 1. 10-3 mbarl/s can be detected. If the vessel is too
great for immersion, the suspected points should be painted by soap solution and again we can see the bubbles
escaping if there is a leak. This method enables detecting the leakage up to 10-5 mbarl/s and is usable also for
very large systems.
Halogen leak detectors are used in the detector-probe mode (to 10-3 mbarl/s), requiring that the system be
pressurized with a gas containing an organic halide, such as one of the Freons. The exterior of the system is
then scanned with a sniffer probe sensitive to traces of the halogen -bearing gas (Fig. 3). The principle is
based on the increased positive ions (K or Na) emission because of sudden halide composition presence. The
ion current is the measure for a leak size. Halogen detectors can be used also in turned mode: evacuated
vessel is connected to detecting instrument and is sprayed by freon. In this manner its performance is up to
5.10-7 mbarl/s and is used in rough, medium and high vacuum.
 Figure 3. Halogen leak detector

Dye penetrant method is an adaptation of a technique used to find cracks in metals and defects in welds.
It uses a low viscosity fluid that exhibits a high rate of surface migration. This fluid is painted on one side of a
suspected leak site, and after a time, it is detected on the other side of the wall. The test is simple, low cost, it
leaves records, thesensitivity can be as high as 10-6 mbarl/s
Acoustical leak detection uses the sonic or ultrasonic energy generated by gas as it expands through an
orifice. Pressurized gas proceeds from tested system through leaks which are detected outside by sensible
microphone (tipically about 40 000 Hz). Acoustical leak detection is widely used in testing high pressure lines,
ductworks etc. It requires modest instrumentation; it is simple and fast but is limited to about 10-3 mbarl/s.
Radioisotope method is useful only for testing hermetically sealed components. They are placed in a
chamber which is to be evacuated and filled with radioactive tracer gas (tipically krypton 85). It
difusesthrough present leaks in the components and after removing it from environs test gas expands through
leaks back and can be detected by radiation sensor. The instruments for this type leak tracing are very
expensive but they enables the measurement of flows up to 10- 11 mbarl/s.
Mass spectrometers as leak detectors are used as most sensitive instruments for stating leak existence
and presence in vacuum systems. They are adjusted on the atom respectively molecular weight of tracer gas.
It is usually helium because of.
- its small mass and atom volume assures good supply of gas through a leak -relatively great mass distance
from neighbour mass enables greater sensitivity - its partial pressure in air is low, approx. 4.10-3 mbar
The first next suitable gas for leak detection purposes would be H2 but it is dangerous and residual
atmosphere in vacuum systems always contains this gas. There are also spectrometers adjustable to other
gases e.g. argon.

4. HELIUM MASS SPECTROMETER (MS-) LEAK DETECTION

● Helium leak detection systems work as follows: He is introduced to a test part that is connected
to the leak detector. The helium travels through leak into the leak detector, its partial pressure is
sensed respectively measured and results are displayed on instrument as flow rate.
● The main part of the device is mass spectrometer, a sensor for different gas masses. In very low
pressure (or vacuum) the molecules of rest gasses are transformed in ions by electron impact.
Separating the ionized particles of different mass to charge ratios (q/m) it is possible to state the
partial pressures of present gases - in our case also the presence of the sought gas helium. For helium
 MS- leak detectors, magnetic sector type mass spectrometers are preferably used as gas search
sensors. The low pressure (less than 2x10-4 mbar) required for operation of the mass spectrometers
is produced by an integrated high vacuum pump system. The auxiliary vacuum pump required for
rough pumping the tested equipment is either incorporated or can be attached via suitable connection.

Figure 4. Conventional type of the helium leak

detection apparatus

● As the necessary pressure for the mass spectrometer cannot always be attained in the tested
equipment within a reasonable pump-down time, various types of MS-leak detectors with different
performances have been developed. The most used are constructions with "full flow operation"
(conventional) and with "contra-flow operation", regarding to the way in which He is supplied towards
MS- sensor. For example the figure 4 shows schematically the conventional type MS leak detector. In
presented system, vacuum is maintained in the spectrometer tube by use of a diffusion pump in
combination with mechanical pump. A cold trap pumps condensable vapors such as oil and water. A
roughing pump is provided to evacuate the test port (and the connected sample to be tested) to a
pressure level that will not disrupt diffusion pump operation. Reaching a suitable vacuum the sample
is valved off from the rough pump and by opening test valve joint to the MS- vacuum system. Helium
sprayed near the leak on the sample surface has now an open way to the MS-tube and there it is
detected. After completing procedure the test port is valved off from the leak detector and vented to
air; than we can change the sample.
● How to use a helium MS- leak detector? There are basically four different techniques for finding
leaks: two "OUTSIDE-IN" and two "INSIDE-OUT" methods (Fig.5).

● In the most commonly used "outside-in" technique, the sample to be tested is connected to leak
detector and evacuated (Fig.5a). Than its surface is "probed" with a pointed jet of helium. Coming
over a leak detector gives an acoustic or visible sign (exactly location) and the data about leak size.
● The second technique (Fig.5b) consists of evacuating and hooding the sample with something like
a plastic sheet and flooding the hood with helium. So it is possible quickly to establish whether or not a
sample leaks and to establish the total leak rate. This technique is most useful on production lines
where a test piece must be accepted or rejected.

● In "inside-out" techniques the test configuration is reversed. Instead of being evacuated, the
sample is pressurized with He. In this case the leak detector is equipped with so called detector probe
 and it can be used in two modes presented in figures 5c and 5d. In mode c) the test piece is probed
with the detector probe around suspected leak sites. This method sensitivity (up to 1. 10-6 mbarl/s) is
not as good as by others because the helium in the air is constantly being admitted into the detector.

●
Figure 5. Main leak detection techniques with MS-leak detector and The tracing gas. In one mode (examples
a and b) He flows from outside into vacuum and in other it expands from inner overpressure in atmosphere

● Mode d) allows testing of a large number of samples simultaneously. It is often called the
bombing technique because the parts are previously placed in a pressurized The vessel where the
helium leaks into the parts which leak. All parts are than exposed to detector probe in closed
container. The mentioned leak test techniques are the main methods for establishing whether leaks
exist and for locating where they are. Each has its own advantages and shortcomings, each has also
its own individual set of variations.
Magnetic Flux Leakage

Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) is a method of non-destructive testing that is used to detect corrosion and
pitting in metallic pipelines. MFL tools scan the full circumference and length of a pipeline, providing high-
resolution information on pipe wall condition. MFL scans the pipe through linings to measure remaining wall
thickness and provide depth and location of metal wall loss caused by corrosion, pitting or other deterioration
mechanisms. Providing the high-resolution data only a technology such as MFL can yield, comprehensive
evaluation using structural models incorporating pipe industry standards can be performed to ensure structural
performance criteria are being met.

THE PRINCIPLE
The basic principle behind MFL involves magnetizing a ferrous metal object to saturation level with a powerful
magnetic field. Where the object has no flaws, the magnetic flux will remain undisturbed.

High magnetization levels are required to differentiate corrosion from other pipeline features such as hard
spots, stress and strain variations and to minimize the effects ofremanent magnetization and velocity.

Where there is internal or external metal loss, the magnetic flux leaks from the object.
 In the MFL testing device, a magnetic sensor is placed between the poles of a magnet yoke to record the
leakage field by Hall-effect sensors. Eddy current sensors integrated in the magnetic flux sensors are used to
improve the differentiation between internal and external defects.

APPLICATIONS
MFL is used to detect metal loss defects (such as corrosion) in a wide range of settings.
Microwave Nondestructive Testing
Abstract
Microwave Nondestructive Testing (MNDT) techniques have advantages over other NDT methods (such as
radiography, ultrasonics, and eddy current) regarding low cost, good penetration in nonmetallic materials, good
resolution and contactless feature of the microwave sensor (antenna). For MNDT techniques, the measured
parameters are reflection coefficients, transmission coefficients, dielectric constants, loss factors, and complex
permeabilities as a function of microwave frequency and temperature. These measured parameters can be
related to material parameters of interest (e.g., flaws, binder content, moisture content, etc.) by suitable
modeling and calibration. We have employed a free-space microwave measurement (FSMM) system which
can measure electromagnetic properties (complex permittivity, complex permeability, reflection coefficients,
etc.) for evaluation of composite materials. The main advantage of this FSMM system is that with suitable
modifications, it is possible to make precise, accurate and reproducible MNDT measurements on composite
materials under high or low temperature conditions and complex electromagnetic environmental conditions (e.
g., DC biasing fields, ionizing radiation, etc.) due to contactless feature of free-space measurements. This
measurement system consists of a pair of spot-focusing horn lens antennas, mode transitions, coaxial cables
and a vector network analyzer (VNA). The inaccuracies in free-space measurements are due to two main
sources of errors. 1) Diffraction effects at the edges of the material specimen. 2) Multiple reflection between
horn lens antennas and mode transitions via the surface of the sample. The spot-focusing antennas are used
for minimizing diffraction effects and free-space LRL (line, reflect, line) calibration method implemented on
VNA eliminates errors due to multiple reflections. In this paper, we have used free-space implementation of
reflection-transmission method for simultaneous determination of complex permittivity (e*) and complex
permeability (m*) of magnetic materials. e* and m* values are reported for carbonyl iron loaded silicon rubber
sheets with carbonyl iron concentration varying from 20% to 50 % (by volume).

Introduction
Microwave nondestructive testing (MNDT) of materials is an important science which involve development of
sensors/probes, methods and calibration techniques for detection of flaws, cracks, defects, voids,
inhomogeneities, moisture content (MC), etc. by means of microwaves [1]. They are increasing being used for
quality control and condition assessment of concrete structures [2,3]. Recently, MNDT technique has been
used for the measurement of slope-of-grain of timber for grading applications [4].
The term microwaves refer to alternating current signals/electromagnetic waves with frequencies between
300 MHz and 100 GHz. Since the penetration of microwaves in good conducting materials is very small,
MNDT techniques are mainly used for nonmetallicmaterials. The spatial resolution of these techniques
depends on the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave. For the microwave band of 3-100 GHz, wavelength
varies from 100 mm to 3mm. These techniques have advantages over other NDE methods (such as
radiography, ultrasonicsand eddy current) regarding low cost, good penetration in nonmetallic materials, good
resolution and contactless feature of the microwave sensor (antenna). Currently, microwave nondestructive
testing can be best classified as a specialized technique (except for moisture gagging) as compared with other
nondestructive test methods. But, modem electronics and computer processing will improve its potential for
industrial applications [5].
For MNDT techniques, the measured parameters are reflection coefficients, transmission coefficients,
dielectric constants, loss factors, and complex permeabilities as a function of frequency (microwaves) and
temperature. These measured parameters can be related to material parameters of interest (e.g., flaws,
inhomogeneities, moisture content, etc.) by suitable modeling and calibration. There are two classes of MNDT
methods which are
1. free-space methods operating in the far-field region employing spot-focusing horn lens
antennas and
2. waveguide methods operating in the near-field region which employ open-ended coaxial
lines, rectangular waveguides, microstrip lines and cavity resonators as probes.
However, in the waveguide methods, it is necessary for the composite material to be in close contact with the
probe. So, these methods are not contactless. In this paper, free-space methods are used which are non
destructive as well as contactless.
We have developed a free-space microwave measurement (FSMM) system which can measure
electromagnetic properties (complex permittivity, complex permeability, reflection coefficients, etc) for
evaluation of composite materials. The main advantage of this FSMM system is that with suitable
modifications, it is possible to make precise, accurate and reproducible MNDT measurements on materials
under high or low temperature conditions and complex electromagnetic environmental conditions (e. g., DC
biasing fields, ionizing radiation, etc) due to contactless feature of free-space measurements. Another
significant advantage of free-space methods is that the measurements can be made when incident, reflected
and transmitted signals are circularly/elliptically polarized electromagnetic waves. Composite materials such as
timber which are lossy and anisotropic cause, a linearly polarized electromagnetic field to be depolarized (i. e.
elliptically polarized) upon transmission through the material. So, MNDT techniques using free-space methods
can be used for evaluation of these materials.
The FSMM system consists of a pair of spot-focusing horn lens antennas, mode transitions, coaxial cables and
a vector network analyzer (VNA). The inaccuracies in free-space measurements are due to two main
sources of errors.
3. Diffraction effects at the edges of the material specimen/sample.
4. Multiple reflection between horn lens antennas and mode transitions via the surface of
the sample.
The spot-focusing antennas are used for minimizing diffraction effects and free-space LRL (line, reflect, line)
calibration method implemented on VNA eliminates errors due to multiple reflections. The time domain gating
or smoothing feature of VNA is used to reduce post calibration errors in reflection and transmission
measurements.
R. M. Redheffer [6] was the first researcher to suggest a simple free-space method for measurement of
dielectric constant from the measured phase of transmission coefficient. He reported that free-space methods
are nondestructive and contactless techniques which are specially suited for dielectric measurement of
materials. Harold L. Bassett [7] was the first researcher to measure complex permittivity in free-space using
spot-focusing antennas at a frequency of 9.4 GHz. He measured complex permittivities of fused silica as a
 function of temperature from ambient to 2500° C. In the last twelve years, a number of free-space methods
were developed for measurement of electromagnetic properties using FSMM system [8-10].

In this paper, we measured e* (= e'- j e") and m*(= m' -m") values of carbonyl iron loaded silicon rubber
(CISR) sheets using FSMM system in the frequency range of 8-12.5 GHz. These sheets have 20 % to 50 %
concentration (by volume) of carbonyl iron powder in silicon rubber.

Free-space Microwave Measurement System

Fig. 1 gives a schematic diagram of the free-space microwave measurement system. A pair of spot-focusing
horn lens antennas have been mounted on a large table (1.83 m ´ 1.83 m) of 2.54 cm thick wood. These
antennas (model no. 857012X-950/C) were manufactured by Alpha Industries, Woburn, MA (USA). These
antennas have two-equal plano-convex lenses mounted back to back in a conical horn antenna. One plano-
convex lens gives an electromagnetic plane wave and the other plano-convex lens focuses the
electromagnetic radiation at the focus. For these antennas, the ratio of focal distance to antenna diameter
(F/D) of the lens is equal to one and D is approximately 30.5 cm.

Fig 1: Free-space microwave

measurement system for
microwave non destructivetesting
of composite materials.

A specially fabricated sample holder is mounted at the common focal plane for holding planar samples. The
sample is sandwiched between two perspex plates (one plate is fixed and the other is moveable). The transmit
and receive horns are mounted on a carriage and the distance between them can be changed with an
accuracy of 25.4 mm. by using a dial indicator. From measured radiation patterns supplied by the
manufacturer, the 3 dB and 10 dB E-plane beamwidths can be calculated. These beam widths will vary in
proportion to wavelength in free space wavelength (lo). The 3 dB and 10 dB beamwidths are approximately lo
and 1.9 lo, respectively. The depth of focus for these horn lens antennas is approximately 10 lo .Because of
spot focusing action of antennas at the focus, the diffraction effects are negligible if the minimum transverse
dimension of the sample is three times the 3-dB E-plane beamwidth (which is approximately 3 lo). This
measurement set up covers a frequency range of 8.0-14.0 GHz . But, the same setup can be used in the
frequency range of 8.0 -40 GHz by appropriate change of mode transitions.
The focused antennas are connected to the two ports of the Wiltron 37269B vector network analyzer by using
precision coaxial cables, rectangular-to-circular waveguide adapters and coaxial-to-rectangular waveguide
adapters. The receive antenna can be rotated from co-polarized position in steps of 10° between - 70° to +
70° . The polarization of transmit and receive antennas depend on polarization of the wave in rectangular
waveguide used in coaxial-to-rectangular waveguide adapter. Vector network analyzer measures amplitude
and phase of reflected or transmitted signal in transmission media such as coaxial line, rectangular/circular
waveguide, microstrip line and free-space. A complete VNA system consists of a fast sweeping synthesized
signal source, auto-reversing S-parameter test set, display unit and a controlling computer. This network
analyzer is used to make accurate reflection and transmission (S-parameters) measurements in free-space
using line-reflect-line calibration model.
Because of multiple reflections between coaxial-to-rectangular waveguide adapters, rectangular-to-circular
waveguide transitions and hom lens antennas, there is a need to calibrate the measurement system in free-
space for S-parameter measurements. We have implemented free-space LRL calibration technique [8,9]. This
calibration technique along with smoothing or time domain gating feature of the network analyzer, can
eliminate effects of multiple reflections. It is known that LRL calibration technique can produce the highest
quality calibration available. Also, it is easier to realize LRL calibration standards in free-space as compared
with open, short and matched termination standards used in coaxial and waveguide media. So, LRL calibration
is the best calibration technique for the free-space medium. Free-space LRL calibration is implemented in
free-space by establishing three standards. The reference planes for port1 and port2 are located at the focal
planes of transmit and receive antennas. The through standard is realized by keeping the distance between
two antennas equal to twice the focal distance. It means that there is a common focal plane for the through
standard. The line standard is achieved by separating the focal planes of the two antennas. The distance
between focal planes is approximately a quarter wavelength at midband, The reflect standards for port 1
(transmit hom) and port 2 (receive hom) are obtained by placing a metal plate (15.24 cm ´ 15.24 cm ´ 2.1 mm)
on sample holder at the reference plane.
LRL calibration kit for coaxial line of the vector network analyzer is modified by defining LRL standards
regarding wave impedances and line lengths. Because of the characteristics of spot-focusing hom lens
antennas, the electromagnetic fields in the neighborhood of common focal plane are plane wave in character,
so the use of modified coaxial calibration kit is justified. The error model for LRL calibration includes error
terms for directivity, isolation, source impedance match, load impedance match, transmission frequency
response and reflection frequency response. This error model has 12 error coefficients which are evaluated
from measured data for the LRL standards. By performing the LRL calibration using the free-space
calibration standards, two-port free-space LRL calibration is obtained.
For measurement of complex reflection coefficient (S11), and complex transmission coefficient (S21) of
composite material sample, the reference planes corresponding to transmit and receive antennas were located
at the front and back face of the sample, respectively. The residual post calibration errors can be further
reduced by using time domain gating or smoothing function of VNA. It is observed that magnitude and phase
of S11 are within ± 0.2 dB and ± 1° of the theoretical value of 0 dB and 180° for the metal plate. For the
through connection, the measured magnitude and phase of S21 are within ± 0.05 dB and ± 0.2° of the
theoretical values of 0 dB and 0° .

Reflection-Transmission Method
In this method, complex permittivity and complex permeability of a planar sample of composite material, can
be calculated from measured complex reflection coefficient (S11) and complex transmission coefficient (S21).
This method is described in detail in reference 9. This method is especially suited for quick, routine and
broadband measurement of e* and m* of high-loss materials. For thin and flexible samples such as CISR
 sheets, the accuracy of measurement of S11 and S21 is poor because of sagging of the sample when mounted
on the sample holder [9]. So, the sample is sandwiched between two Teflon plates which are half-wavelength
at mid-band. The actual values of S11and S21 of sample are calculated from the measured S11and S21 of
Teflon-sample-Teflon plate assembly from the knowledge of the complex permittivity and thickness of the
Teflon plates. In our research, the complex permittivity and thickness of Teflon is taken as 2.08 - j 0.00077 [9]
and 11.2 mm, respectively. These Teflon sheets are half-wavelength at 9.2795 GHz. From the error analysis
[9], it is observed that the accuracy in e' , e" , m' and m" are better than ± 5 %. If the dielectric loss tangent
(e"/e') is less than 0.1. Then, e" can not be measured accurately. Also, if the magnetic loss tangent (m"/m' ) is
less than 0.1. Then, m" can not be measured accurately.

Experimental Results
Carbonyl iron loaded silicon rubber (CISR) sheets are used as a lossy microwave materials for free-space
microwave absorbers, EMI shielding applications, microwave attenuators and microwave terminations [11].
Carbonyl iron is a ferromagnetic material and so, CISR sheets are expected to have complex permeability
other than 1.0 - j 0.0. Three CISR sheets were tested with carbonyl iron concentration varying from 20 % to
50 % by volume. These CISR sheets were manufactured by Emerson & CumingMicrowave Products, Inc.,
Randolph, MA, USA 02368. The thicknesses of CISR sheets with 20 %, 40 % and 50 % concentration of
carbonyl iron powder, are 3.54 mm, 3.15 mm and 1.58 mm, respectively. e* and m* values of CISR sheets are
measured in the frequency band of 8-12.5 GHz. Because errors due to smoothing function of VNA are large
at the bandages, e* and m* values were calculated only in the frequency range 8.5-12 GHz. Tables 1, 2 and 3
give e*(= e' - j e") and m* (= m' - m") values for CISR sheets.

Frequency e' e" m' m"

(GHz)

8.5 5.62 0.4 1.2 0.47

9.0 5.6 0.31 1.2 0.48

9.5 5.6 0.19 1.18 0.46

10.0 5.58 0.2 1.16 0.45

10.5 5.62 0.42 1.15 0.41

11.0 5.49 0.37 1.12 0.4

11.5 5.63 0.72 1.13 0.35

12.0 5.53 0.83 1.09 0.33

Table 1: e* and m* values of CISR sheet with Silicon Rubber 80 % by volume and Carbonyl Iron 20 %
by volume.

Frequency e' e" m' m"

(GHz)
8.5 15.6 -0.48 1.81 1.83

9.0 15.46 -0.52 1.75 1.81

9.5 15.16 -0.53 1.66 1.80

10.0 15.04 -0.51 1.60 1.79

10.5 14.92 -0.35 1.57 1.79

11.0 14.86 -0.23 1.54 1.80

11.5 14.87 -0.09 1.52 1.80

12.0 14.93 0.02 1.50 1.79

Table 2 :e* and m* values of CISR sheet with Silicon Rubber 60 % by volume and Carbonyl Iron 40 %
by volume.

Frequency e' e" m' m"

(GHz)

8.5 17.5 0.43 1.64 2.13

9.0 17.19 0.17 1.62 2.12

9.5 16.7 -0.33 1.53 2.07

10.0 16.4 -0.36 1.47 2.08

10.5 16.22 -0.10 1.42 2.04

11.0 15.64 -0.04 1.30 2.05

11.5 15.86 -0.01 1.33 2.0

12.0 15.39 0.03 1.23 2.01

Table 3 :e* and m* values of CISR sheet with Silicon Rubber 50 % by volume and Carbonyl Iron 50 %
by volume

Conclusions
Microwave nondestructive testing using FSMM system is a contactless technique which can be implemented
by measuring electrical parameters such as complex permittivity and complex permeability as a function of
frequency and temperature. From tables 1 to 3, it is observed that values of e' and m" increase as the
concentration of carbonyl iron powder increases from 20 % to 50 %. This is due to higher volume fraction of
the magnetic material in the composite. Also, for 50 % concentration of carbonyl iron, there is a significant
decrease in e' and m' with increasing frequency. Expected values of e" is greater than or equal to zero. The
negative values of e" are due to measurement [Link], due to dielectric loss tangent being less than 0.1, e"
can not be measured accurately. But, reflection-transmission method gives accurate values of e', m' and m" of
CISR sheets.
 Neutron Radiography Testing
Also known as: Neutron Imaging, N-Ray Radiography, Neutron Tomography

Similar to x-ray radiography, neutron radiography

is a very efficient tool to enhance investigations in
the field of non-destructive testing (NDT) as well
as in many fundamental research applications.
Neutron radiography is, however, suitable for a
number of tasks impossible for conventional x-ray
radiography. The advantage of neutrons
compared to x-rays is the ability to image light
elements (i.e. with low atomic numbers) such as
hydrogen, water, carbon etc. In addition, neutrons
penetrate heavy elements (i.e. with high atomic
numbers) such as lead, titanium etc. allowing the
study of materials in complex sample
environments, for example water accumulation in
hydrogen fuel cells: see Fig. 1. Because neutrons
interact with the nucleus rather than with the
electron shell, they can also distinguish between
different isotopes of the same element. This
makes neutron radiography an important tool in
various research applications and in the field of
NDT. The MNRC high neutron intensity beams Fig. 1. Left: Photograph of a hydrogen fuel cell.
permit short exposure times, high spatial Right: False colored neutron radiograph of a fuel
resolution and high sample throughput. cell showing the water content of the cell during
operation.

Methods of neutron radiography

The detection of neutrons relies on a conversion into visible light; to achieve this, conversion screens
containing either Gd or 6Li and a fluorescence material are commonly used. After the conversion the
emitted light can be detected by different media such as:
● Film, that is then developed in a dark room and results in a permanent image,

● Imaging Plates, that can be re-used after being processed by an image reader. (The
technology is very similar to x-ray imaging plates used at medical offices),
● Digital cameras (CCD, CMOS), allow to capture the image digitally.
Differences between neutron and x-ray radiography
 Neutron radiography is based on the principal that neutrons interact with the nucleus of the atom,
rather than the electrons. Therefore neutrons are absorbed in matter very differently from x-rays and
gamma rays. This means that, contrary to x-rays, neutrons are attenuated by some light materials, such
as hydrogen, boron and lithium, but penetrate many heavy materials such as titanium and lead. This
allows for some unique applications of neutron radiography.
The figures below impressively demonstrate how neutron radiography can yield different yet
complementary information to x-ray radiography.

COMPARATIVE RADIOGRAPHS OF A
SLR CAMERA

X-Ray Neutron
Radiograph Radiograp
h

Fig.2. X-ray and Neutron

radiographs of a 35 mm film
SLR camera. Dark elements
in the x-ray radiographs are
caused by metal components;
comparison shows that they
are almost transparent for
neutrons. Dark componets in
the neutron radiograph are
due to plastic components
which in turn are almost
transparent to x-rays.

Applications
Neutron Radiography has a wide range of uses, including:
● Imaging casting to ensure that the mold materials don't carry into the castings as
impurities.
● Validating the proper fill of pyrotechnical in actuators
● Studying the flow of oil in automobile transmissions
● Facilitate Fluid flow analysis
● Analyze O-ring placements

● Image carbon, gun powder grain structure, plastics, lead, and other heavy metals.

● Testing air-cooled jet engine turbine blades for residual core material and other cooling
passage blockages.
● Reliability testing of detonators in explosive devices.

● The inspection of high-reliability explosives for presence of transmitters and receivers and for
explosive loading uniformity.
● Inspecting for internal flaws such as cracks, inclusions, voids, bubbles, foreign materials,
density variations and misalignments.
● Testing braze quality and the presence of braze materials in manufactured parts.
● Determining capacitor delamination.

● Determining bonding flaws in adhesives.

● Inspecting radioactive objects such as a gamma source in its shielding.
● Determining reliability of air bag or parachute initiators.

● Inspection of artifacts uncovered through archaeological digs.

● Inspecting for aluminum corrosion products.

 ● Testing for missing or misplaced O-rings.

● Testing for hydrogenous foreign substances in sealed units.

How does Neutron Radiography NDT testing work?

The nondestructive inspection of a material using neutron imaging is very similar to the process used in X-Ray
NDT; however, unlike x-rays, n-ray radiography services allow the imaging of organic materials inside a
component. Metals in the subject component take on a transparent appearance in neutron radiographic
images. In many cases, x-ray and neutron radiography are complementary NDT inspection processes,
offering a complete picture not only the integrity of the component, but also of the organics within that
component.

Thermal Infrared Testing

Introduction
Thermal Infrared Testing is also known as (AKA Thermal Inspection, Thermography, Thermal Imaging,
Thermal Wave Imaging and Infrared Testing)

(Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)

Thermal NDT methods involve the measurement or mapping of surface temperatures as heat flows to, from
and/or through an object. The simplest thermal measurements involve making point measurements with a
thermocouple. This type of measurement might be useful in locating hot spots, such as a bearing that is
wearing out and starting to heat up due to an increase in friction.
In its more advanced form, the use of thermal imaging systems allow thermal information to be very rapidly
collected over a wide area and in a non-contact mode. Thermal imaging systems are instruments that create
pictures of heat flow rather than of light. Thermal imaging is a fast, cost effective way to perform detailed
thermal analysis. The image above is a heat map of the space shuttle as it lands.
Thermal measurement methods have a wide range of uses. They are used by the police and military for night
vision, surveillance, and navigation aid; by firemen and emergency rescue personnel for fire assessment, and
for search and rescue; by the medical profession as a diagnostic tool; and by industry for energy audits,
preventative maintenance, processes control andnondestructive testing. The basic premise of thermographic
NDT is that the flow of heat from the surface of a solid is affected by internal flaws such asdisbonds, voids or
inclusions. The use of thermal imaging systems for industrial NDT applications will be the focus of this
material.

History of Thermal Testing

The detection of thermal energy is not a problem for the human body. Some sources say that the nerve
endings in human skin respond to temperature changes as small as 0.009oC (0.0162oF). While humans have
always had the ability to detect thermal energy, they have not had a way to quantify temperature until a few
hundred years ago. A few of the more significant thermal measurement advances are discussed in the
following paragraphs.
The Thermometer

Ancient Greeks knew that air was expanded by heat. This knowledge was eventually used to develop
thethermoscope, which traps air in a bulb so that the size of the bulb changes as the air expands or contracts
in response to a temperature increase or decrease. The image on the right shows the first published sketch of
athermoscope, which was published by Italian inventorSantorio Santorii. The next step in making a
thermometer was to apply a scale to measure the expansion and relate this to heat. Some references say that
Galileo Galilei invented a rudimentary water thermometer in 1593 but there is no surviving documentation to
support his work on this. Therefore, Santorii is regarded as the inventor of the thermometer, for he published
the earliest account of it in 1612. Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer in 1714.
Infrared Energy
Sir William Herschel, an astronomer, is credited with the discovery of infrared energy in 1800. Knowing that
sunlight was made up of all the colors of the spectrum, Herschel wanted to explore the colors and their
relationship to heat. He devised an experiment using a prism to spread the light into the color spectrum and
thermometers with blackened bulbs to measure the temperatures of the different colors. Herschel observed an
increase in temperature from violet to red and observed that the hottest temperature was actually beyond red
light. Herschel termed the radiation causing the heating beyond the visible red range "calorific rays." Today, it
is called "infrared" energy.
The Seebeck Effect (Thermocouples)

In 1821, Thomas Johann Seebeck found that a circuit made from two dissimilar metals, with junctions at
different temperatures, would deflect a compass needle. He initially believed this was due to magnetism
induced by a temperature difference, but soon realized that it was an electrical current that was induced.
More specifically, the temperature difference produces an electric potential (voltage) which can drive electric
current in a closed circuit. Today, this is known as the Seebeck effect.
The voltage difference, DV, produced across the terminals of an open circuit made from a pair of dissimilar
metals, A and B, whose two junctions are held at different temperatures, is directly proportional to the
difference between the hot and cold junction temperatures, Th- Tc. The Seebeck voltage does not depend on
the distribution of temperature along the metals between the junctions. This is the physical basis for a
thermocouple, which was invented by Nobili in 1829.
Noncontact Thermal Detectors
Melloni soon used the thermocouple technology to produce a device called the thermopile. A thermopile is
made of thermocouple junction pairs connected electrically in series. The absorption of thermal radiation by
one of the thermocouple junctions, called the active junction, increases its temperature. The differential
temperature between the active junction and a reference junction kept at a fixed temperature produces an
electromotive force directly proportional to the differential temperature created. This effect is called a
thermoelectric effect. Melloni was able to show that a person 30 feet away could be detected by focusing his
or her thermal energy on the thermopile. Thermopile detectors are used today for spectrometers, process
temperature monitoring, fire and flame detection, presence monitor, and a number of other noncontact
temperature measurement devices. A device similar to the thermopile measured a change in electrical
resistance rather than a voltage change. This device was named the bolometer, and in 1880 it was shown that
it could detect a cow over 1000 feet away.
During World War I, Case became the first to experiment with photoconducting detectors. These thallium
sulfidedetectors produced signals due to the direct interaction of infrared photons and were faster and much
more sensitive than other thermal detectors that functioned from being heated. During World War II,
photoconductive or quantum detectors were further refined and this resulted in a number of military
applications, such as target locating, tracking, weapons guiding and intelligence gathering.
Imaging Systems
Application areas expanded to surveillance and intrusion during the Vietnam era. Shortly thereafter space-
based applications for natural resource and pollution monitoring and astronomy were developed. IR imaging
technology developed for the military spilled over into commercial markets in the 1960s. Initial applications
were in laboratory level R&D, preventative maintenance applications, and surveillance. The first portable
systems suitable for NDT applications were produced in the 1970s. These systems utilized a cooled scanned
detector and the image quality was poor by today's standards. However, infrared imaging systems were soon
being widely used for a variety of industrial and medical applications.
In the late 1980s, the US military released the focal plane array (FPA) technology into the commercial
marketplace. The FPA uses a large array of tiny IR sensitive semiconductor detectors, similar to those used in
charge couple device (CCD) cameras. This resulted in a dramatic increase in image quality. Concurrently, the
advances in computer technology and image processing programs helped to simplify data collection and to
improve data interpretation.
Current State
In 1992, the American Society for Nondestructive Testing officially adopted infrared testing as a standard test
method. Today, a wide variety of thermal measurement equipment is commercially available and the
technology is heavily used by industry. Researchers continue to improve systems and explore new
applications.
Scientific Principles of Thermal Testing
Thermal Energy
Energy can come in many forms, and it can change from one form to another but
can never be lost. This is the First Law of Thermodynamics. A byproduct of
nearly all energy conversion is heat, which is also known as thermal energy.
When there is a temperature difference between two objects or two areas within
the same object, heat transfer occurs. Heat energy transfers from the warmer areas
to the cooler areas until thermal equilibrium is reached. This is the Second Law
of Thermodynamics. When the temperature of an object is the same as the
surrounding environment, it is said to be at ambient temperature.
Heat Transfer Mechanisms
Thermal energy transfer occurs through three mechanisms: conduction,
convection, and/or radiation. Conduction occurs primarily in solids and to a
lesser degree in fluids as warmer, more energetic molecules transfer their energy
to cooler adjacent molecules. Convection occurs in liquids and gases, and
involves the mass movement of molecules such as when stirring or mixing is
involved.
The third way that heat is transferred is through electromagnetic radiation of
energy. Radiation needs no medium to flow through and, therefore, can occur even
in a vacuum. Electromagnetic radiation is produced when electrons lose energy
and fall to a lower energy state. Both the wavelength and intensity of the radiation
is directly related to the temperature of the surface molecules or atoms.
Wavelength of Thermal Energy

The wavelength of thermal radiation extends from 0.1 microns to several hundred
microns. As highlighted in the image, this means that not all of the heat radiated
from an object will be visible to the human eye… but the heat is detectable.
Consider the gradual heating of a piece of steel. With the application of a heat
source, heat radiating from the part is felt long before a change in color is
noticed. If the heat intensity is great enough and applied for long enough, the part
will gradually change to a redcolor. The heat that is felt prior to the part changing
color is the radiation that lies in the infrared frequency spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation. Infrared (IR) radiation has a wavelength that is longer
than visible light or, in other words, greater than 700 nanometers. As the
wavelength of the radiation shortens, it reaches the point where it is short enough
to enter the visible spectrum and can be detected with the human eye.
An infrared camera has the ability to detect and display infrared energy. Below is
an infrared image of an ice cube melting. Note the temperature scale on side,
which shows warm areas in red and cool areas in purple. It can be seen that the
ice cube is colder than the surrounding air and it is absorbing heat at its surface.
The basis for infrared imaging technology is that any object whose temperature is
above 0°K radiates infrared energy. Even very cold objects radiate some infrared
energy. Even though the object might be absorbing thermal energy to warm itself,
it will still emit some infrared energy that is detectable by sensors. The amount of
radiated energy is a function of the object's temperature and its relative efficiency
of thermal radiation, known as emissivity.

(Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)

Emissivity
A very important consideration in radiation heat transfer is the emissivity of the
object being evaluated. Emissivity is a measure of a surface's efficiency in
transferring infrared energy. It is the ratio of thermal energy emitted by a surface
to the energy emitted by a perfect blackbody at the same temperature. A perfect
blackbody only exists in theory and is an object that absorbs and reemits all of its
energy. Human skin is nearly a perfect blackbody as it has an emissivity of 0.98,
regardless of actual skin color.
If an object has low emissivity, IR instruments will indicate a lower temperature
than the true surface temperature. For this reason, most systems and instruments
provide the ability for the operator to adjust the emissivity of the object being
measured. Sometimes, spray paints, powders, tape or "emissivity dots" are used
to improve the emissivity of an object.

Equipment - Detectors
Thermal energy detection and measurement equipment comes in a large variety of
forms and levels of sophistication. One way to categorize the equipment and
materials is to separate thermal detectors from quantum (photon) detectors. The
basic distinction between the two is that thermal detectors depend on a two-step
process. The absorption of thermal energy in these detectors raises the
temperature of the device, which in turn changes some temperature-dependent
parameter, such as electrical conductivity. Quantum devices detect photons from
infrared radiation. Quantum detectors are much more sensitive but require cooling
to operate properly.
Thermal Detectors
Thermal detectors include heat sensitive coatings, thermoelectric devices and
pyroelectric devices. Heat sensitive coatings range from simple wax-based
substances that are blended to melt at certain temperatures to specially formulated
paint and greases that change color as temperature changes. Heat sensitive
coatings are relatively inexpensive but do not provide good quantitative data.
Thermoelectric devices include thermocouples, thermopiles (shown right),
thermistors and bolometers. These devices produce an electrical response based
on a change in temperature of the sensor. They are often used for point or
localized measurement in a contact or near contact mode. However, thermal
sensors can be miniaturized. For example, microbolometers are the active
elements in some high-tech portable imaging systems, such as those used by fire
departments. Benefits of thermal detectors are that the element does not need to be
cooled and they are comparatively low in price. Thermal detectors are used to
measure the temperature in everything from home appliances to fire and intruder
detection systems to industrial furnaces to rockets.
Quantum (Photon) Detectors

Unlike thermal detectors, quantum detectors do not rely on the conversion of

incoming radiation to heat, but convert incoming photons directly into an
electrical signal. When photons in a particular range of wavelengths are absorbed
by the detector, they create free electron-hole pairs, which can be detected as
electrical current. The signal output of a quantum detector is very small and is
overshadowed by noise generated internally to the device at room temperatures.
Since this noise within a semiconductor is partly proportional to temperature,
quantum detectors are operated at cryogenic temperatures [i. e. down to 77 K
(liquid nitrogen) or 4 K (liquid helium)] to minimize noise. This cooling
requirement is a significant disadvantage in the use of quantum detectors.
However, their superior electronic performance still makes them the detector of
choice for the bulk of thermal imaging applications. Some systems can detect
temperature differences as small as 0.07°C.
Quantum detectors can be further subdivided into photoconductive and
photovoltaic devices. The function of photoconductive detectors are based on
thephotogeneration of charge carriers (electrons, holes or electron-hole pairs).
These charge carriers increase the conductivity of the device material. Possible
materials used for photoconductive detectors include indium antimonide(InSb),
quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP), mercury cadmium telluride
(mercad, MCT), lead sulfide(PbS), and lead selenide (PbSe).
Photovoltaic devices require an internal potential barrier with a built-in electric
field in order to separate photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Such potential
barriers can be created by the use of p-n junctions or Schottky barriers. Examples
of photovoltaic infrared detector types are indium antimonide (InSb), mercury
cadmium telluride (MCT), platinum silicide (PtSi), and silicon Schottkybarriers.
Detector Cooling
There are several different ways of cooling the detector to the required
temperature. In the early days of thermal imaging, liquid nitrogen was poured into
imagers to cool the detector. Although satisfactory, the logistical and safety
implications led to the development of other cooling methods. High pressure gas
can be used to cool a detector to the required temperatures. The gas is allowed to
rapidly expand in the cooling systems and this expansion results in the significant
reduction in the temperature of a gas. Mechanical cooling systems are the
standard for portable imaging systems. These have the logistical advantage of
freeing the detection system from the requirements of carrying high pressure gases
or liquid nitrogen.
Equipment - Imaging Technology
Imaging Systems

Thermal imaging instruments measure radiated infrared energy and convert the
data to corresponding maps of temperatures. A true thermal image is a gray scale
image with hot items shown in white and cold items in black. Temperatures
between the two extremes are shown as gradients of gray. Some thermal imagers
have the ability to add color, which is artificially generated by the camera's video
enhancement electronics, based upon the thermal attributes seen by the camera.
Some instruments provide temperature data at each image pixel. Cursors can be
positioned on each point, and the corresponding temperature is read out on the
screen or display. Images may be digitized, stored, manipulated, processed and
printed out. Industry-standard image formats, such as the tagged image file format
(TIFF), permit files to work with a wide array of commercially available
software packages.
Images are produced either by scanning a detector (or group of detectors) or by
using with focal plane array. A scanning system in its simplest form could involve
a single element detector scanning along each line in the frame (serial scanning).
In practice, this would require very high scan speeds, so a series of elements are
commonly scanned as a block, along each line. The use of multiple elements
eases the scan speed requirement, but the scan speed and channel bandwidth
requirements are still high. Multiple element scans do, however, result in a high
degree of uniformity. The frame movement can be provided by frame scanning
optics (using mirrors) or in the case of line scan type imagers, by the movement of
the imager itself. Another method is to use a number of elements scanning in
parallel (parallel scanning). These scanners have one element per line and scan
several lines simultaneously. Scan speeds are lower but this method can give rise
to poor image uniformity.

Another way thermal images are produced is with focal plane arrays (FPA),
which are also known as staring arrays. A focal plane array is a group of sensor
elements organized into a rectangular grid. A high magnification image of a
portion of a mirobolometer focal plane array is shown to the right. The entire
scene is focused on the array, each element cell then provides an output dependent
upon the infrared radiation falling upon it. The spatial resolution of the image is
determined by the number of pixels of the detector array. Common formats for
commercial infrared detectors are 320 by 240 pixels (320 columns, 240 rows),
and 640 by 480. The latter format is nearly the resolution obtained by a standard
TV. Spatial resolution, the ability to measure temperatures on small areas, can be
as fine as 15 microns. Temperature resolution, the ability to measure small
temperature differences, can be as fine as 0.1° C.
The advantage of FPAs is that no moving mechanical parts are needed and that the
detector sensitivity and speed can both be slower. The drawback is that the
detector array is more complicated to fabricate and manufacturing costs are
higher. However, improvements in semiconductor fabrication practices are
driving the cost down and the general trend is that infrared camera systems will
be based on FPAs, except for special applications. A microbolometeris the latest
type of thermal imaging FPA, and consists of materials that measure heat by
changing resistance at each pixel. The most common microbolometer material is
vanadium oxide (VOX). Amorphous silicon is another relatively new
microbolometer material.
Applications extend from microelectronic levels to scanning wide areas of the
earth from space. Airborne systems can be used to see through smoke in forest
fires. Portable, hand-held units can be used for equipment monitoring in
preventative maintenance and flaw detection innondestructive testing programs.
Equipment for Establishing Heat Flow
In some inspection applications, such as corrosion or flaw detection, the
components being inspected may be at ambient temperature and heat flow must be
created. This can be accomplished by a variety of means. Heating can be
accomplished by placing the part in a warm environment, such as a furnace, or
directing heat on the surface with a heat gun or with flash lamps. Alternately,
cooling can be accomplished by placing the component in a cold environment or
cooling the surface with a spray of cold liquid or gas.
Image Capturing and Analysis
IR cameras alone or used with an external heat source can often detect large,
near-surface flaws. However, repeatable, quantifiable detection of deeper,
subtler features requires the additional sensitivity of a sophisticated computerized
system. In these systems, a computer is used to capture a number of time sequence
images which can be stepped through or viewed as a movie to evaluate the
thermal changes in an object as a function of time. This technique is often referred
to as thermal wave imaging.

The image to the right shows a pulsed thermography system. This system uses a
closely controlled burst of thermal energy from a xenon flash lamp to heat the
surface. The dissipation of heat is then tracked using a high speed thermal imaging
camera. The camera sits on top of the gray box in the foreground. The gray box
houses the xenon flash lamp and it is held against the surface being inspected. The
equipment was designed to inspect the fuselage skins of aircraft for corrosion
damage and can make quantitative measurements of material loss. It has also been
shown to detect areas of water incursion in composites and areas where bonded
structure have separated.
Image Interpretation
Most thermal imagers produce a video output in which white indicates areas of
maximum radiated energy and black indicates areas of lower radiation. The gray
scale image contains the maximum amount of information. However, in order to
ease general interpretation and facilitate subsequent presentation, the thermal
image can be artificially colorized. This is achieved by allocating desired colors
to blocks of grey levels to produce the familiar colorized images. This enables
easier image interpretation to the untrained observer. Additionally, by choosing
the correct colorization palette the image may be enhanced to show particular
energy levels in detail.

Many thermal imaging applications are qualitative in nature. The inspection

simply involves comparing the temperatures at various locations within the field
of view. The effects of the sun, shadows, moisture and subsurface detail must all
be taken into account when interpreting the image, but this type of inspection is
straightforward. However, great care must be exercised when using an infrared
imager to make quantitative temperature measurements. As mentioned previously,
the amount of infrared radiation emitted from a surface depends partly upon the
emissivity of that surface. Accurate assessment of surface emissivity is required
to acquire meaningful quantitative results.
Techniques and Select Industrial
Applications of Thermal Imaging
Some thermal imaging techniques simply involve pointing a camera at a
component and looking at areas of uneven heating or localized hot spots. The first
two example applications discussed below fall into this category. For other
applications, it may be necessary to generate heat flow within the component
and/or evaluate heat flow as a function of time. A variety of thermal imaging
techniques have been developed to provide the desired information. A few of
these techniques are highlighted below.
Electrical and Mechanical System Inspection
Electrical and mechanical systems are the backbone of many manufacturing
operations. An unexpected shutdown of even a minor piece of equipment could
have a major impact on production. Since nearly everything gets hot before it
fails, thermal inspection is a valuable and cost-effective diagnostic tool with
many industrial applications.

With the infrared camera, an inspector can see the change in temperature from the
surrounding area, identify whether or not it is abnormal and predict the possible
failure. Applications for infrared testing include locating loose electrical
connections, failing transformers, improper bushing and bearing lubrication,
overloaded motors or pumps, coupling misalignment, and other applications
where a change in temperature will indicate an undesirable condition. Since
typical electrical failures occur when there is a temperature rise of over 50°C,
problems can be detected well in advance of a failure.
The image on the right above shows three electrical connections. The middle
connection is hotter than the others. Connections can become hot if they are loose
or if corrosion causes an increase in the electrical resistance.
Electronic Component Inspection

In electronics design and manufacturing, a key reliability factor is semiconductor

junction temperature. During operation, a semiconductor generates heat and this
heat will flow from the component. The heat will flow from the component in all
directions, but will flow particularly well along thermally conductive connectors.
This leads to an increase in temperature at the junctions where the semiconductor
attaches to the board. Components with high junction temperatures typically have
shorter life spans. Thermal imaging can be used to evaluate the dissipation of heat
and measure the temperature at the junctions.
Corrosion Damage (Metal Thinning)

IR techniques can be used to detect material thinning of relatively thin structures

since areas with different thermal masses with absorb and radiate heat at different
rates. In relatively thin, thermally conductive materials, heat will be conducted
away from the surface faster by thicker regions. By heating the surface and
monitoring its cooling characteristics, a thickness map can be produced. Thin
areas may be the result of corrosion damage on the backside of a structure which
is normally not visible. The image to the right shows corrosion damage and
disbondingof a tear strap/stringer on the inside surface of an aircraft skin. This
type of damage is costly to detect visually because a great deal of the interior of
the aircraft must be disassembled. With IR techniques, the damage can be
detected from the outside of the aircraft.

Flaw Detection
Infrared techniques can be used to detect flaws in materials or structures. The
inspection technique monitors the flow of heat from the surface of a solid and this
flow is affected by internal flaws such as disbonds, voids or inclusions. Sound
material, a good weld, or a solid bond will see heat dissipate rapidly through the
material, whereas a defect will retain the heat for longer.
A new technique call vibrothermography or thermosonictesting was recently
introduced by researchers at Wayne State University for the detection of cracks. A
solid sample is excited with bursts of high-energy, low-frequency acoustic
energy. This causes frictional heating at the faces of any cracks present and
hotspots are detected by an infrared camera.
Despite the apparent simplicity of the scheme, there are a number of experimental
considerations that can complicate the implementation of the technique. Factors
including acoustic horn location, horn-crack proximity, horn-sample coupling, and
effective detection range all significantly affect the degree of excitation that
occurs at a crack site for a given energy input.
Below are two images from an IR camera showing a 0.050" thick 7075 aluminum
plate sample with a prefabricated crack being inspected using a
commercialvibrothermography system. The image on the left is the IR image with
a pre-excitation image subtracted. A crack can be seen in the middle of the
sample and just to the right of the ultrasonic horn. Also seen is heating due to the
horn tip, friction at various clamping sites, and reflection from the hole at the right
edge of the sample. The image on the right is the same data with image processing
performed to make the crack indication easier to distinguish.
Vibration Analysis

The vibration signature of a machine is the characteristic pattern of vibration it

generates while it is in operation. It has been shown many times over that the vibration
of an operating machine provides far more information about the inner workings of that
machine than any other type ofnondestructive test. A bearing that has a small developing
fault will cause a tell-tale change in the machine's vibration, as will a weight imbalance
condition, a shaft or coupling misalignment, or any of a myriad of other faults.

With virtually all building owners and operators seeking reductions in plant
maintenance manpower, as well as greater efficiency of all maintenance practices, the
value of vibration analysis has become more obvious in recent years. Vibration analysis
provides a thorough evaluation of all moving parts of one's plant equipment and
machinery, can identify root causes as well as specific machine faults, and most
importantly, is capable of correctly identifying those machine faults when or actually
before they first appear.
Vibration analysis, properly applied, allows the detection of small developing
mechanical defects long before they become a threat to the integrity of the machine, and
thus provides the necessary lead time to suit the needs and schedules of the plant
operators / management. In this way, plant management has control over the machines,
rather than the other way around. Properly applied, vibration analysis offers the
following significant benefits:

Transition from "Run to Failure" mode or preventive to Predictive

Maintenance
 Acceptance testing of new equipment delivery and installations

Quality assurance of major overhaul repairs

Implement Proactive maintenance practices

Avoid or minimize unnecessary calender-based maintenance

Decreased or eliminated unscheduled machine downtime

Improved maintenance management by directing resources on a need

basis

Energy savings

Recommended Levels of Testing

In order to get the best results from a vibration analysis, regular equipment testing is
required. When the program is first set up it will generally provide only a small set of
data to evaluate. In the worst case, there may be only one set of reference data from only
one individual piece of equipment. At best, a number of examples of the same given
machine type will provide a larger sample of data for analysis and comparison. As each
machine is re-tested and another cycle of data collected, the accuracy for evaluating
equipment condition will improve.
Clearly, a successful vibration program is dependant upon an accurate accumulation of
data over time. How often data should be collected is generally dictated by how critical
your equipment is to your specific operation. Each time a reading is performed on a
particular piece of equipment, the success rate of your vibration analysis program
increases and the better your chances are of allowing yourself to forecast equipment
problems, schedule corrective action and avoid catastrophic failure. Generally
speaking, in most applications, the minimum data collecting frequency is quarterly.
Semi-annual testing may be appropriate to some non-critical equipment types.
Procedures and Specifications
The following is a detailed specification of testing procedures, equipment, and
reporting methods used in our vibration analysis program. It is fundamentally based
upon the testing methods established by DLI Engineering, as well as our own
experience. Such testing and reporting procedures have evolved over many years based
upon our response to the needs and requests of our customers.
Preliminary Investigation
Prior to the actual field testing, East Coast Industries, Inc. shall conduct a walk through
of the equipment location(s), and review all pieces of rotating equipment such as fans,
chillers, generators, condenser water, chilled water, hot water and radiation pumps, etc.
in use. Operating parameters such as previous mechanical maintenance history shall be
noted.
Test Equipment and Sensors

Field testing shall be performed using the DLI Watchman® DCX™ XRT which is
equipped with a triaxialaccelerometer. The DLI Watchman® DCX™ XRT is capable of
many analytical functions including time synchronous averaging and demodulation for
analysis of gears and bearings. Other analysis functions include log or linear amplitude
scales, live harmonic markers, and single or multiple channel displays for both time and
spectrum.
The DCX measures narrow-band frequencies as opposed to broad-band frequencies.
Narrow-band analysis identifies specific machine faults where broad-band only
identifies overall vibrations levels which encompass a wide range of frequencies.
Tri-Axial Measurements

To determine machine health and identify problems, vibration data from each
measurement point will be taken in three directions. This is accomplished by using a
triaxialaccelerometer. A triaxial accelerometer has three transducers in one housing,
and they are oriented in the three orthogonal directions called Axial, Radial, and
Tangential. Axial is the direction parallel to the centerline of a shaft or turning axis of a
rotating part. Radial is that direction toward the center of rotation of a shaft or rotor.
The Tangential measurement is that measurement that is tangent or perpendicular to the
radial transducer.
Machine Preparation

The most reliable data is collected when the transducer is permanently mounted to the
machine surface. In any machinery monitoring program, it is extremely important that the
data is collected in exactly the same manner each time a measurement is taken. This is
to assure that the data is repeatable and can be trended over time. For this reason, it is
not recommended that hand-held transducers be used. For that reason ECI installs a
cylindrical mounting block or "pad" at each bearing point on the machine. A pad is a
bronze disc with a center tapped hole and has a knochat the edge that receives an
indexing pin that is located on the accelerometer.
The direction that is sensitive along the axis of the mounting screw is channel number
one. The axis in the direction of the key way is channel number two, and the axis
perpendicular to this is channel number three. The "pad" is attached to the machine
using an adhesive which consists of two parts to permanently assure that the data is
repeatable and can be trended over time. The installation of the mounting blocks is
sometimes referred to as "blocking" a machine.
A typical motor driving a pump or fan usually consists of four test points. Typically
having one test point located at the motor free end. The second located at the drive end
of the motor. The third test point located on the driven end of the pump or fan, and the
fourth point located on the free end of the pump or fan.
Software Database Setup
Once the machine preparation is completed and all the information is collected, the
information can then be programed into the DLI Watchman® DCX™ XRT software.
The software used by the DLI Watchman® DCX™ XRT is called Expert Alert. This
software allows you to setup a database in a hierarchy of plant, area, and machine. A
plant is the physical site where the company performs normal everyday operation.
Areas are used to group machines together in a specific region of the plant. The final
grouping is done by machine. This allows you to use a name or number to relate to a
specific machine in an area.
To get the best results from the Expert Alert software it is important to have a good
average database. The average database tells the system what the vibration levels
should look like, what vibration levels are normal, and how much vibration variation to
expect. There should be at least five averages to make up a good average database.
There is only one average recorded per "MID". A "MID"is a grouping of identical
machines running under like conditions. A unique machine will have its own "MID".
Testing Procedure
After the machine is blocked and the Expert Alert software is configured to the
equipment to be tested, we are readyto began testing. The triaxial accelerometer is then
attached to the proper test point "pad"on the machine. It is attached by lining up the
indexing pin, and tightening thecenter screw into the center tapped hole in the "pad".
While the machine is running, the DLI Watchman® DCX™ XRT will collect the
vibration data. All data collected is then stored on the DCX's built in hard drive in
wave form spectra. This step is then repeated until all test points for a particular
machine have been tested. If we are testing a machine with a "VFD", (variable
frequency drive), it is recommended that the run speed be set to the same hertz during
every test. This assures repeatable test data and accurate results.
Reporting Criteria
Once all data is collected it is brought back to the office for analysis on a desktop
computer. ECI employs one of the most powerful vibration software packages available
on the market today. This advanced Expert Alert software is a powerful integrated
system that provides fully automated fault diagnosis and repair recommendations on any
type and number of machines, faster and more accurately than human experts. This
system is capable of detecting several hundred machine faults which lead to degradation
and failures such as bearing wear, misalignment, imbalance, pump erosion, foundation
flexibility and reduces false calls from flow and other process noise and external
vibration. Expert Alert software also gives you a detailed diagnoses as well as a
severity level for all faults present. Severity levels are based on a combination of
vibration levels and their exceedances of average plus one sigma. Other frequencies
and groups of vibration peaks are addressed by a templet. Each specific mechanical
fault is represented by a diagnostic templet. The expert system uses approximately three
hundred and fifty different templates to determine faults, harmonics, sidebands, and
elevated noise floors.
A full report is delivered to you within several days. Each report includes detailed
information on the machine tested, machine history, time and date of test, running
speed,faults detected and repair recommendations. In the event we foresee a severe
problem that requires immediate action, we will call and fax you immediately with
specific repair recommendations. Our report formats provide the information our clients
want in a clear and concise text using non-technological language. The machine reports
allow you to run a proactive and more efficient maintenance program. Our report
includes actual spectrum graphics, specific data derived from all test locations, and a
complete explanation of its importance. The final result is a professional, ready for
presentation report filed with the information necessary to not only justify a repair, but
to pinpoint the origin of the problem and the replacement parts required.
Clear Presentation of Results
Vibration Analysis: FFT, PSD, and Spectrogram Basics

FFT, PSD and spectrograms don't need to be so complicated. Once you understand the basics they can really
help with your vibration analysis.
This topic contain the right mix of theory and practical information, with examples, so that you can hopefully
take your vibration analysis to the next level!
In order to effectively do your job of vibration analysis, you may be more interested in some practical
information; but it is important to understand a bit of the theory behind FFTs, PSDs and spectrograms. Let's go
through the important differences between an FFT, PSD, and spectrogram.

Simple Vibration Analysis in the Time Domain

When analyzing vibration data in the time domain (acceleration/vibration amplitude plotted against time) we’re
limited to a few parameters in quantifying the strength of a vibration profile: amplitude, peak-to-peak value,
and RMS. A simple sine wave is shown below with these parameters identified.

1. The peak or amplitude is valuable for shock events but it doesn’t take into account the
time duration and thus the energy in the event.
2. The same is true for peak-to-peak with the added benefit of providing the maximum
excursion of the wave, useful when looking at displacement information, specifically clearances.
3. The RMS (root mean square) value is generally the most useful because it is directly
related to the energy content of the vibration profile and thus the destructive capability of the
vibration. RMS also takes into account the time history of the wave form.

Vibration is an oscillating motion about an equilibrium so most vibration analysis looks to determine the rate of
that oscillation, or the frequency. The number of times a complete motion cycle occurs during a period of one
second is the vibration’s frequency and is measured in hertz (Hz). For simple sine waves the vibration
frequency could be determined from looking at the waveform in the time domain; but as we add different
 frequency components and noise, we need to perform spectrum analysis to get a clearer picture of the
vibration frequency.

Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

FFT Background
Any waveform is actually just the sum of a series of simple sinusoids of different frequencies, amplitudes, and
phases. A Fourier series is that series of sine waves; and we use Fourier analysis or spectrum analysis to
deconstruct a signal into its individual sine wave components. The result is acceleration/vibration amplitude as
a function of frequency, which lets us perform analysis in thefrequency domain (or spectrum) to gain a
deeper understanding of our vibration profile. Most vibration analysis will typically be done in the frequency
domain.
Fourier analysis works by “testing” for the presence of each frequency component. A discrete Fourier
transform (DFT) multiplies the raw waveform by sine waves of discrete frequencies to determine if they
match and what their corresponding amplitude and phase are. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is just a DFT
using a more efficient algorithm that takes advantage of the symmetry in sine waves. The FFT requires a
signal length of some power of two for the transform and splits the process into cascading groups of 2 to
exploit these symmetries. This dramatically improves processing speed; if N is the length of the signal, a DFT
needs N2 operations while a FFT needs N*log2(N) operations. So for example, let’s take a signal length of
1024 (210); the DFT needs 1,048,576 operations compared to the much more efficient FFT and its 10,240
operations. Although the execution time of an FFT will be fastest when the signal length is some power of 2,
today's computing power and modern FFT algorithms make this time difference insignificant.
 The number of discrete frequencies that are tested as part of a Fourier transform is directly proportional to the
number of samples in the original waveform. With N being the length of the signal, the number of frequency
lines or bins is equal to N/2. These frequency bins occur at intervals (∆ f) equal to the sample rate of the raw
waveform (Fs) divided by the number of samples (N), which is another way of saying that the frequency
resolution is equal to the inverse of the total acquisition time (T). To improve the frequency resolution, you
must extend the recording time.

The lowest frequency tested is 0 Hz, the DC component; and the highest frequency is the Nyquist frequency
(Fs/2). Windowing can be used to scale the frequency range of interest and manipulate the frequency bin
width. There’s a lot that goes into understanding how windowing works and how to choose the right function
for yourapplication;Let’s dive into some examples to understand how spectrum analysis can be used for your
vibration testing application!

Constructed Sine Wave and FFT Example

To illustrate how an FFT can be used, let’s build a simple waveform with and use an FFT for vibration
analysis. This constructed waveform will consist of three different frequency components: 22 Hz, 60 Hz, and
100 Hz. These frequencies will have an amplitude of 1g, 2g, and 1.5g respectively. The following figure
shows how this waveform looks a little confusing in the time domain and also illustrates how the signal length
affects the frequency resolution of the FFT. Again, the MATLAB script which generated this data is available
to download.

If we sample this wave at a 500 Hz rate (500 samples per second) and take an FFT of the first 50 samples
we’re left with a pretty jagged FFT due to our bin width being 10 Hz (Fs of 500 divided by N of 50). The
amplitude of these frequency components are also a bit low. But if the range is extended to the first 250
samples as shown then the FFT is able to accurately calculate both the frequency and amplitude of the
individual sine wave components.
Not that the “pure” waveform didn’t look confusing enough in the time domain; but if broadband noise is
added as shown in the bottom plots then the waveform becomes even less distinguishable. This is the power
of an FFT, it is able to clearly identify the major frequencies that exist to help theanalyzer determine the cause
of any vibration signal.
Real World FFT and Spectrogram Examples

Vibration Analysis of a Car Engine

In real world applications there will typically be many different frequency components of a vibration profile as

well as mechanical and electrical noise. Let’s look at some data taken on a passenger car engine while it was

idling and do some vibration analysis. This data was generated with a Slam Stick vibration data logger as part

of a how-to video series if you're interested in some more details about the test setup.

We can use spectrum analysis of the vibration profile to indicate what the engine’s crank shaft rotation speed

was. This is a 4-cylinder 4-cycle engine. The engine operates with two pairs of pistons moving out of phase

with each other and two piston combustions per crank shaft rotation; so the dominant frequency of the

engine’s vibration will be twice the crank shaft rotation speed (here’s a nice video on how a 4-stroke engine

works). In the FFT there is clearly a dominate frequency at 30 Hz or 1,800 RPM which tells us that at idle

the crank shaft is rotating at 900 RPM (or 15 Hz) where there is also a peak in the FFT. The use of an FFT in

our vibration analysis gave clues on what was causing the measured vibration.

In many applications the vibration frequency will change with time and you can run into trouble if you only
look at the FFT. Let's zoom out of the area where the car engine is running at a relatively fixed rate, and
compute an FFT of the entire signal. In this test the engine sat off for a period of time, idled, then the engine
was revved before letting it idle again and finally turning it off. The vibration frequency changed pretty
dramatically throughout the test; but the FFT doesn't capture that. We know from the previous plot that when
it was idling there was a fairly significant dominate vibration frequency of 30 Hz; but this peak gets muted
when you try and look at the FFT of a changing vibration environment.
 In this example, and others where the vibration frequency changes with time, we need a spectrogram. A
spectrogram works by breaking the time domain data into a series of chunks and taking the FFT of these time
periods. These series of FFTs are then overlapped on one another to visualize how both the amplitude and
frequency of the vibration signal changes with time. Turn this three dimensional surface plot of FFTs on its
side, add a color scale to represent the amplitude (often works best when you look at the color/amplitude on a
logarithmic scale) and you're left with a spectrogram!
Back to that car engine example where the engine was revved for a bit. The spectrogram shown below
illustrates how the dominate frequencies change with time in relation to when the car engine was idled and
revved. Using a spectrogram theanalyzer gains a much deeper understanding of the vibration profile and how
it changes with time.

Vibration Analysis on the Exterior of an Aircraft during Climb

A spectrogram doesn't have to be viewed in two dimensions. In the below example I kept the surface plot in

the three dimensional view. This is from data taken by a Slam Stick on the outside of an aircraft as it climbed

from 23,000 ft to 40,000 feet. The temperature also dropped from 14°C to -31°C (58°F to -24°F) during the

test.

These three dimensional surface plots look pretty cool; but I think that the 2D view better illustrates how the
spectrum changes with time as shown below. I wish I could say more about this data and the exact
 application; but this vibration data was acquired testing our aerospace customer’s proprietary system. The
vibration data is really interesting though, and illustrates how enjoyable vibration analysis can be!

Vibration Analysis on a Semi-Trailer Truck during Transit

 Now let’s quickly take a look at some data I gathered with our Slam Stick vibration loggers as part of a

vibration analysis and energy harvesting study. We had a customer interested in harvesting energy on his

trailer bed during shipments to power an asset tracking device using ourpiezoelectric energy harvesters.

Below is an excerpt of the data with a spectrogram, the raw data can be downloaded by clicking the link at

the end of this post.

The spectrogram helps us see that that there is definitely some interesting vibration content; and there appears
to be a fairly consistent signal around 25 Hz (it’s a must to have a relatively consistent vibration frequency for
vibration energy harvesting). We can use an FFT to take a closer look at the vibration profile during a time
period where there isn't a shock, shown below.

The FFT reveals a modest peak around 27 Hz; but the vibration in this environment is still mostly dominated by
“random” vibration levels which brings us to how and why PSDs are used in vibration analysis.

Power Spectral Density (PSD)

What is a PSD?
A lot of vibration in the real world, especially during transit, can be called “random” vibration because it is
motion at many frequencies at the same time. FFTs are great at analyzing vibration when there are a finite
number of dominant frequency components; but power spectral densities (PSD) are used to characterize
random vibration signals. A PSD is computed by multiplying each frequency bin in an FFT by its complex
conjugate which results in the real only spectrum of amplitude in g2. The key aspect of a PSD which makes it
more useful than a FFT for random vibration analysis is that this amplitude value is then normalized to the
 frequency bin width to get units of g2/Hz. By normalizing the result we get rid of the dependency on bin width
so that we can compare vibration levels in signals of different lengths.

PSDs and Vibration Test Standards

Because of how PSDs cancel out the effect of bandwidth of a frequency spectrum, many test standards will

describe their vibration environment with a PSD. Let’s go through an example from MIL-STD-810G. Figure

514.6C-5 (page 312) describes the typical acceleration levels that jet aircraft cargo are exposed to as shown

below.

If you were developing something for the government that was going to be transported with a jet aircraft, you

would be required to do some testing on your device/equipment to prove it can survive prolonged exposure to

those vibration levels. Most shaker control systems will have these exposure profiles built in but they can also

be constructed easily given some known PSD levels and rise/decline rates. Let’s take a look at some data

captured by a Slam Stick X when it was being excited with these vibration levels; all this data is available to

download.

Obviously the raw data in the time domain doesn’t tell us much although I was admittedly surprised by the
nearly 20g amplitude of the vibration. Let’s do some vibration analysis and compute both FFTs and PSDs of
these signals to see how the signal length affects the amplitude for the FFT but not the PSD.
 The red lines in the PSD are the input error bounds that the shaker is trying to keep the signal within. As you
see, the PSD of different signal lengths just fills in this area but the amplitude doesn’t change overall. The
FFT amplitude however shifts down as the bandwidth is increased. The PSD amplitude does not shift because
it is normalized to the frequency bin width. This normalization that occurs in a PSD calculation makes it so
much more desirable to be used when analysing random vibration signals.

Vibration Analysis of the Seat on a Commercial Airline

Now let’s put ourselves in the shoes of someone buying equipment to be integrated into a larger system. We

will want to make sure this equipment can handle the vibration levels in this environment so we may require a

test organization to quantify that environment. I used a Slam Stick recently on a commercial flight to do just

this, but I wanted to understand what type of vibration levels us humans were exposed to by measuring the

seat in front of me. Check out the data below along with a PSD (again this is all available to download).

There is definitely a resonance of that seat around 250 Hz; but there is surprisingly steady broadband vibration
of 10-5 g2/Hz from 1 Hz to 1 kHz. Now if I was designing a system to operate on/in that airline seat, I could
use this PSD to program an exposure profile in our laboratory shaker. Then I’d be able to do some in-house
testing ahead of a field test; and because we measured the actual data in the actual environment, we’d have
confidence that our system can survive. It’s incredibly valuable to go out and actually measure the
environment than to simply rely on some test standard. These test standards will recommend using the
standard’s data as a guide; but they typically try and encourage the engineer to go out and get the actual
vibration data. Nothing beats the real data!
Summary

FFT
The fast Fourier transform (FFT) is an efficient algorithm used to compute a discrete Fourier transform
(DFT). This Fourier transform outputs vibration amplitude as a function of frequency so that the analyser can
understand what is causing the vibration. The frequency resolution in an FFT is directly proportional to the
signal length and sample rate. To improve the resolution the time of the recording must be extended; but be
careful of a changing vibration environment.

Spectrogram
A spectrogram takes a series of FFTs and overlaps them to illustrate how the spectrum (frequency domain)
changes with time. If vibration analysis is being done on a changing environment, a spectrogram can be a
powerful tool to illustrate exactly how that spectrum of the vibration changes.
PSD
A power spectral density (PSD) takes the amplitude of the FFT, multiplies it by its complex conjugate and
normalizes it to the frequency bin width. This allows for accurate comparison of random vibration signals that
have different signal lengths. For this reason, PSDs are typically used to describe random vibration
environments like those specified in military and commercial test standards.

Getting the Vibration Data

Before you can get started with your vibration analysis, you'll need to gather some vibration data! If you
haven't gotten that far, explore some vibration measurement options; and if you're going the route of
accelerometers, make sure you select the right accelerometer type.

Facility integrity assessments can fuel gains in the oil

and gas sector
Oil and gas companies face complex, often hazardous work environments that they must manage with incredible care.
Any undesirable event in this industry often leads to a high consequence scenario, so the need to mitigate relevant risk
is critical when trying to keep profits in a healthy place and efficiency at maximum performance.

Facility integrity assessments allow organizations to identify opportunities to improve safety and efficiency through
careful analysis of their assets. Working with a specialist to evaluate your facilities can give you key insights into
facility issues that impact everyday operations and potential areas of risk. In the end, you’ll get a clear facility
inspection report that lets you take direct action to improve your structures and systems to promote stronger
maintenance practices.

What is a facility integrity assessment?

In simple terms, the facility integrity assessment involves having engineers with a deep knowledge of industry best
practices and procedures evaluate your facility to identify how your processes can interact with the material that they
are contained by, and identify areas with high likelihood of damage and corrosion. By analyzing processes, engineers
identify sources of risk and opportunities to mitigate that risk through targeted specialized inspection ensuring that you
aren’t spending money on inspection where it is not needed and not overlooking areas that can lead to unscheduled
downtime. An assessment will typically involve:

· Closely analyzing every element of the facility to clearly identify and

mitigate hazards. Leveraging other existing processes in the facility such as
Process Safety Management and Process Hazard Analysis is critical to a
successful integrity program.
 · Identifying opportunities to reduce Non-conformities, particularly
focusing on specific local jurisdictional and regulatory laws that affect the
facility and ensuring that that the minimum requirements are met to
guarantee compliance with the requirements.
· A review of historical inspection and maintenance activities which can
provide information on potential chronic problems in the facility, and a
corrosion assessment of all potential damage mechanisms that may be
present based on current and historical operating data. A survey of the
current level of readiness of components in the facility will be made to
prevent any loss of containment and unscheduled downtime.
· Pinning down opportunities to reduce the need for emergency downtime
and develop strategies for optimizing production. By addressing issues
during planned shutdowns instead of in the middle of the night on an
emergency shut down or outage, the costs will be driven down and the
confidence of the maintenance program will increase.
· Providing oversight and surveillance over projects on pressure vessels,
tanks and piping systems. These services will typically cover new
construction, repairs and any alterations to these systems.
· Generation of inspection plans outlining the proper application of NDT
techniques that will ensure a high probability of detection. High volume
inspection with low detection probability is worse than not inspecting at
all. This drives up a false sense of security and leads to unexpected
failures.
With such a wide breadth of services available in a facility integrity assessment, the assessment can be used to deliver
a wide range of positive results.

What to expect from a facility integrity assessment

The scope of a facility integrity assessment means it covers a wide range of issues. That said, the most prominent
gains you should expect from the assessment are:
 · An increased awareness of how various facility elements impact
reliability, safety and compliance within your operations.
· A better understanding of the true up to date condition of your equipment.
· A high level understanding of the relevant risks in the facility. Always
focus on minimizing relevant risk and use your inspection program to
manage residual risk.
· A description of assets that are showing signs of wear and tear and may
be in need of replacement. Age isn’t always critical to equipment, thus a
conditional assessment is more important than just viewing equipment as
“old”.
· A greater degree of visibility into construction and repair needs.
· A heightened sense of the underlying factors that cause damages and a
greater ability to respond to emergencies and incidents in the most efficient
way possible.

Why work with Applus+ RTD for your facility assessment

At Applus+ RTD, we specialize in the nuanced engineering skills needed for success in the oil and gas industry. Our
teams have deep expertise in everything from non-destructive pipeline testing to quality assurance and project
management. Our services include providing a blend of skilled engineers and modern technological services to
improve and accelerate testing. In the context of facility assessments, this means we can offer you vital analysis that
drives value for your business. We can help you:

· Reduce repair costs by getting ahead of issues before they escalate.

· Minimize downtime by updating your processes relative to your
specific facility demands.
· Position you to optimize every facet of your facility to drive
productivity, compliance and safety.

Utility Mapping for Risk Reduction in Oil and Gas

The importance of utility mapping cannot be overstated in the Oil and Gas industry.
Time critical operations can be delayed during times of emergency if subsurface asset
locations are unknown. Maintenance schedules of critical assets can require
adjustments due to the configuration of subsurface infrastructure.

Special consideration and concern include the location and identification of ‘Dead
legs’. Most sites include ‘dead legs’ where piping was installed for future expansion or
where the asset was adjusted after initial installation. ‘Dead legs’ are exposed to the
same pressures and corrosive chemicals without the flows that create the equilibrium
and consistency of live lines. ‘Dead legs’ can collect sediments or be spots of
increased corrosion.

A key component of utility mapping includes the detection and recording of

infrastructure that has been abandoned in place. Abandoned in place infrastructure may
be properly sealed according to the environmental practices of the day. However, the
abandoned lines may not meet modern environmental requirements or safety standards.
Abandoned in place lines may predate the current site infrastructure or have been
adjusted recently.
New and expanding pipelines can benefit from utility mapping as well as other
geophysical surveys, depending on the geologic site concerns. Some of these concerns
include critical infrastructure, abandoned or undocumented utilities, existing (or
historic) mining activities, karst geology, and steep hills with limited soil cover to name
the most common concerns. Surveys that provide information about the subsurface can
improve safety and save time and money by eliminating possible surprises.

Asset operators for facilities that contain subsurface pipelines must contend with the
potential for damage to these assets at any given time. For a number of reasons,
including excavation, heavy-weather events, ground surface slips, environmental
investigation or remediation, and new construction, ground must be broken to keep
operations moving forward. But when the location and depth of vital underground
infrastructure are not properly documented, mapped or transferred onto pertinent
parties, crews can easily dig into an unknown line or damage a transmission line while
excavating.

That’s why more and more operators in the oil and gas industry are turning to utility
mapping. Utility mapping is a process that combines utility locating techniques of
ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology, radiodetection, and electromagnetic
induction to locate assets followed by mapping the assets to create digital files.
Acoustic pipe locating (APL) is the latest advancement in locating utilities in situations
that are otherwise poorly defined. Once the georeferenced information of the delineated
lines are recorded and preserved, operators can build 2-D and 3-D maps and various
forms of geodatabases to keep on hand. If future construction or excavation is necessary,
these maps can be updated and maintained to keep crews from damaging underground
assets and ensure full transparency of all infrastructure.

Documentation of the locations of above ground assets can also be missing, inaccurate
or incomplete. Laser scanning of above ground piping assets can be used to produce
point cloud models of assets. The 3-D mapping and modeling of aboveground piping,
valves, support structures and utilities can be instrumental in the planning of
maintenance, renovation, expansion and remediation projects. These 3-D models can
be integrated with the delineated underground facilities to provide an in-depth
comprehensive understanding of the infrastructure at a site.

Non-destructive subsurface exploration on demand

One of the more surprisingly common realities that asset owners and operators of oil
and gas facilities face is having to constantly juggle the many forms of data they
retrieve. Though sophisticated operations may have established practices and
technology for gathering real-time data on assets – such as performance, degradation,
life span, location, etc. – others may still rely on paper-based or incomplete processes.
Sometimes there may be no standardized procedure for keeping track of these assets and
their associated metrics, which makes it far more difficult to keep production moving
smoothly or for service providers and regulators to quickly get the information they
need before creating reports, recommendations and best practices. In a perfect world,
all of this data would be compiled from the time an asset went online.

Today’s subsurface exploration strategies capitalize on non-destructive technology that

makes analyzing, cataloging and updating asset information much more seamless. In
addition to the benefit of accurate information housed in a single repository, utility
mappingalso equates to risk reduction on sites. For operators, this means all production
assets can be properly maintained and that any physical adjustments to infrastructure can
be made in a timely manner following protocol that starts with knowledge of the assets
themselves. If, for example, a petroleum pipeline is upgraded from an old low pressure
6 inch line to a new 24 inch pipeline, construction and excavation teams would know
exactly how to uproot and uncover vital assets below the surface. This level of
refinement translates to faster uptime once production assets are recommissioned,
heightened worker safety and peace of mind knowing all measures of security have been
taken.

The latest in utility mapping solutions

Updating asset information is one task, but then leveraging that data for greater use is
another. That’s where Applus+ RTD’s comprehensive approach to utility mapping
services come into play. By utilizing utility mapping and other services such as 3D
laser scanningApplus+ RTD can bring clear insight into your subsurface and surface
assets in one complete package

Through these methods, operators are able to utilize Applus+ RTD’s data record
retention system that can be updated and visualized for future applications. Assets that
were once hidden from sight are now located on digital or physical maps using
AutoCAD and graphical imaging software, among other technologies.

Bringing infrastructure to the surface, and to life, for engineers, decision-makers and
facility operators to see keeps companies well-informed and well-positioned for years
of continued success and security.
Innovation: the key to effective boiler inspection
Boilers suffer from many forms of degradation while in service. Water wall tubes can
incur a range of issues, from hydrogen damage, pitting, ash and soot-blower erosion,
graphitisation, under-deposit corrosion, thermal fatigue cracking and creep damage.
These types of degradation may impact on the normal running of a company’s facilities,
and, ultimately, the operation of the business.

Regular inspections are key in order to maintain proper boiler functioning and prevent
further damage or failure. However, the traditional method of inspecting boiler water
wall tubes for loss of wall thickness is acknowledged to be very slow and expensive. It
requires many thousands of ultrasonic thickness readings, spaced several feet apart in
elevation, to be taken, which is a very time-consuming process.

That same traditional inspection process also requires the boiler to be scaffolded and
the tubes (usually) to be cleaned to bare metal in the areas where the readings are to be
taken, thus lengthening the process even further.
As part of its commitment to innovation, Applus+ has been researching solutions for
cheaper and faster inspections of water wall tubes. With more than 100 years’
experience in the field and a vast network of state-of-the-art laboratories, Applus+ has
succeeded in developing VertiScan, a time and cost-saving alternative, driven by
Remote Field technology.

The VertiScan System is used to rapidly scan the water walls of a boiler during a
scheduled outage so that repair decisions can be made proactively. Up to five tubes can
be scanned at once, at speeds of up to 5m (15 ‘)/min. The robotic (TubeCAT) crawler
can climb 100’ up/down the water wall and handle up to 1/4″ of scale between the
tubes, with results presented immediately on a colour map showing areas of
degradation. All indications found are checked with visual and ultrasonic techniques,
where tubes are accessible.

The technique is sensitive to all types of wall thinning, including:

· Hydrogen damage
· Under scale pitting and graphitisation
· Flame and soot blower erosion
· Blistering and local overheating
· Creep damage (thermal fatigue)
· Elephant skin, rhino hide
· Dents and gouges
· Internal and external pitting

The cost to scan all four walls of a boiler is generally far less than the cost of an
emergency shut-down due to tube failure. Many of our clients see the VertiScan system
as an efficient and cost-effective alternative, and are already testing and implementing
the process at their sites.
Colour map showing scan results, i.e. areas of degradation

VertiScan system
Pipeline Repair: Considerations for Determining the
Most Appropriate Method
Hazardous liquid and natural gas pipelines have been used for decades to transport
crude oil, refined petroleum products, and natural gas from their respective gathering
systems to facilities where they are refined, processed, or stored. As with any aging
infrastructure after a certain period of time, preventative and ongoing maintenance is
required to ensure the continued performance of the asset and to prevent issues from
arising which could potentially have a detrimental effect or even lead to failure.
Pipelines are no different in this respect. In order to align with federal regulations and
ensure continued reliability of their pipeline assets, operators are required to develop
and implement an integrity management plan for each pipeline they operate.

All manufacturing processes have the potential introduce imperfections into the pipe.
Inspections during manufacturing and construction along with methods of pre-service
testing prove that the pipe is fit-for-service at the proposed operating pressure.
However, history has shown that some flaws can degrade over time to the point where a
failure could occur. Additionally, certain conditions such as corrosion can initiate after
a pipeline has gone into service. Therefore it is imperative that the integrity of the pipe
is appropriately managed throughout the service life of the pipeline. While there are
many processes, systems, and technologies dedicated to mitigating the causes of
degradation of flaws in pipe, eventually the severity may require that the pipe be
repaired.

What are the options for pipeline repair?

While federal regulations establish the criteria used to define injurious defects, damage,
or anomalies, they do not specify acceptable repair methods or under what
circumstances different repair methods are applicable. For this type of guidance, one
must refer to industry codes and standards which contain industry best practices.
Below is a list of the most common repair methods recognized and discussed by
industry standards.

1. Replace as Cylinder
2. Removal by Grinding
3. Deposition of Weld Metal
4. Reinforcing Full Encirclement Sleeve (Type A)
5. Pressure-Containing Full Encirclement Sleeve (Type B)
6. Composite Sleeve
7. Mechanical Bolt-on Clamps
8. Hot Tap
9. Fittings
It is important to understand that while the above repairs are specifically mentioned and
discussed by common industry standards, an operating company may choose to
complete a more rigorous analysis to justify a different repair approach. In other
words, while industry standards recommend the above repairs under certain
circumstances based on industry best practices, those industry standards do not prevent
an operator from using another type or method of repair so long as such alternative
practices can be demonstrated to be consistent with the objectives of industry codes,
standards and best practices. When an operating company decides to take this
approach, it is recommended that the operating company provide details and
calculations demonstrating that such alternative practices are consistent with industry
codes, standards and best practice objectives. This is generally the practice for
alternative methods as prescribed in the industry documents.

Considerations for Determining the Most Appropriate Method of Repair

After it has been determined that a repair is required, the next question that must be
answered is: “How are we going to repair it?” The answer to this question varies and
is based on many different elements. There are many acceptable repair methods
recognized by the industry, however not all repair methods are applicable in all
situations and some repair methods require special procedures to be in place in order to
ensure they are properly completed. Timing, material availability, or the additional
procedures that may have to be in place, all can have an impact on the method selected
to repair a pipeline. Some repair methods just may not be practical, while others just
may not be applicable or appropriate. Therefore, first it is important to consider the
limitations of each repair method in order to determine whether the repair method is
valid, per industry codes, standards and best practices, and second whether it is
feasible with respect to the specific situation. That being said, there are three repair
methods recognized by industry standards which are acceptable for repairing any type
of potentially injurious condition. Those repair methods are Replace as Cylinder, Type
B Sleeve, and Mechanical Bolt-on Clamps. Below are some examples of items that
must be considered prior to implementing other repair methods and why.

1. Does the defect, damage, or anomaly affect a seam or girth weld? If so, the repair
methods available may be limited depending on whether the weld is ductile or
brittle. For example, the only methods applicable for repairing a 3% dent with
5% strain affecting a brittle weld in a gas pipeline are Replace as Cylinder, Type
B Sleeve, or Mechanical Bolt-on Clamp. Whereas for the same dent affecting a
ductile weld, there are additional repair options which are acceptable:
Composite Sleeve, Type A Sleeve, or Hot Tap.
2. Is the defect, damage, or anomaly leaking? If so, the only repair methods allowed
are Replace as Cylinder, Type B Sleeve, Mechanical Bolt-on Clamps, and,
 depending on the specific scenario, removal by Hot Tap.
3. Can the pipeline be shut down or diverted? If not, then this eliminates the option
to Replace as Cylinder.
4. What is the size of the targeted repair? Defects which cannot be contained
entirely within an NPS 3 fitting cannot be repaired using a fitting type repair
method. Additionally, defects which exceed the largest possible coupon of
material that can be removed through a hot-tap fitting cannot be repaired by using
a hot tap to remove the defect, damage or anomaly from the pipeline.
5. Schedule/availability of materials: How soon is the repair required to be
completed? Some repair methods such as using mechanical bolt-on clamps are
designed for a single specific application and may have long lead times to obtain
the repair clamp which eliminates it as a repair option depending on the repair
schedule.
6. Are all required procedures and qualified personnel available to perform the
repair? Regulations require that some repairs, such as deposition of weld metal,
be performed by a qualified welder using an approved welding procedure. If
these required items are not already in place they can cause delays to the repair
schedule.
The Engineering Team at Kiefner, an Applus+ company, has extensive experience in
supporting and providing guidance to pipeline operators for making individual pipeline
repairs as well as experience in writing complete pipeline repair manuals for both
liquid and gas pipelines which cover all types of pipeline repair methods and aid the
operator in selecting the most appropriate repair for each defect type they encounter on
their pipeline.
Applus+ PU12 remote inspection tool combines
expertise with design thinking for a complete
transformation of the client experience in oil & gas
Combining inspection expertise, technology and the principles of design thinking,
we customised the PU12, a remote inspection tool for safer, cheaper and faster
inspection of complex on-plot piping.

Applus+ provides remote visual inspections and non-destructive testing as a safe,

flexible and cost-effective alternative to conventional inspection methods. In an
increasingly competitive sector, with growing challenges, we work together with our
clients to create innovative solutions for real inspection problems. Our goals is to
increase safety by using technology to significantly reduce the number of hours of
working at height. We focus on remote inspection tools that improve efficiency and cost-
effectiveness of an asset management program.
Our clients often come to us with challenging inspection problems. They always need
solutions that make their assets safer while reducing costs. Often these are not
commercial off -the-shelf inspection solutions. Besides inspection drones that have well
known capabilities, remote inspection tools for different oil & gas assets are yet to be
created.

For example, complex oil & gas plants have areas in which maze-like piping structures
pose considerable inspection challenges. These areas are rarely accessible in person
and often involve pitch-black warrens of piping and steel structures which implicates
considerable safety risks for inspectors. Thus, our team employed a design thinking
process and customised a new tool for the inspection of complex on-plot piping: the
PU12.

The PU12, an inspection pole cam is tailored to inspect maze-like piping that is
inaccessible or too complex for manned inspections. Besides its zooming capabilities,
it is equipped with a powerful LED light for clear imagery in dark areas. It gives 95%
accessibility, up to 12 m, while being considerably faster than conventional inspection
methods. It significantly improves the inspection efficiency for on-plot piping.

Like all remote visual inspection services, the PU12 generates a vast amount of digital
visual information. This is transformed into invaluable data that helps our clients to set
their long-term maintenance (and sometimes production) strategies so as to maximise
resources.

In April 2018, less than six months after its creation, the PU12 won the Commercial
Success Award at Shell Pernis, one of the largest integrated refineries and chemical
manufacturing site in Europe. The win was on foot of the PU12 being faster than
conventional inspection methods, resulting in considerable cost savings to the client.

This was the second consecutive win for our team, which also won the Commercial
Success Award in 2017, with the CU24 tool. The CU24 win was due to the team’s deep
understanding of the client’s needs and working together with their team to solve
inspection problems one step at a time, combining inspection expertise with up-to-the-
minute technology and the principles of design thinking.
Design thinking is a creative approach to product development whereby products are
designed from a clients’ needs perspective. At the heart of design thinking is an
emphasis on the user experience, with users being involved from an early stage. Here,
our team used design thinking in their strategy to create innovative remote visual
inspections.

Once our team identifies a need for remote inspection solutions centered around the
user, design thinking process is then applied to develop remote inspection tools that
decrease costs and optimise compliance.

During the development phase, the team starts with an assessment of the client’s
inspection problem, then generates ideas, one of which is tested and implemented.
During the implementation phase, service procedures are designed according to the
client’s asset requirements and inspection needs. Then they are approved and certified.
Newly developed tools can also be adapted to other clients’ premises and inspection
needs.

The client is involved right from the beginning, receiving relevant information in real
time during every stage of the process, from initial assessment to implementation.
Our mission as a leading inspection and testing company is to revolutionise our visual
inspections by using automation to make operations faster, safer and more cost-
effective. Our tailored remote inspection solutions increase the effectiveness of your
integrity programme while minimising risk to health and safety and maximising resource
use.

Single sided Phased Array: Developments in weld

ultrasonic inspection
This is an ultrasonic method which allows a volumetric welding test from one side
of the weld.

Applus+ is testing single sided Phased Array, consisting of an ultrasonic method which
is used in pulse-echo mode and allows Applus+ to carry out a volumetric welding test
from only one side of the weld.

It involves an ultrasonic inspection application on welded joints which only can be

approached from one side, such as pipe-fitting, pipe-flange and pipe-valve, by means of
Phased Array. In other words, single-sided Phased Array.
The main advantage of Phased Array regarding conventional ultrasonic examination is
the representation. The ultrasonic signals become clearer, which offers an advantage in
the analysis in terms of sizing and monitoring, and detection will mainly be based on
amplitude response with reference reflector.

The test plan for this method consists of 9 parts, all necessary for the research on the
single-sided Phased Array technique. The plan is made to find a good way to examine a
weld from one side using Phased Array.

· First the theoretical part: Creating scan plans whereby all parameters,
which are necessary for carrying out the examination, are recorded and
visualized.
· Then the practical part: Scanning welds with known defects with the
theoretically determined parameters. All obtained data is analyzed with
the detected indications being measured in length and recorded.
· The comparison: The results are compared with the X-ray results with
a very positive result. For the tested welds single sided Phased Array
detected more of the known indications than the current technique on that
kind of welds viz X-ray.
· The practical feasibility: Soon the next test phase will start with
scanning field welds and comparing with the x-ray results of those
welds.
To summarize, in the first test phases this technique shows a fast and reliable solution
for weld quality on welds which can only be approached from one side, while
inspection times are reduced to a minimum. The result of the weld quality can be given
in a couple of minutes after scanning. Another big advantage with respect to x-ray is that
the environment does not have to be evacuated.
Material evaluation using Infrared “Active”
Thermography
As further scientific advancements are made to the composition of the materials that
are used to manufacture various components in the aerospace world, manufacturers are
looking for more advanced inspection technologies that can offer reliable and
repeatable inspection results in a cheaper, timelier manner.

In the past ultrasonic testing was the go to method of inspection for most of these types
of applications; however over the years “Active” also known as “Pulsed”
Thermography has emerged as a widely used and accepted form of inspection for
material evaluation in non-destructive testing. Active Thermography is a non-contact
form of NDT that can quickly provide valuable information regarding a material’s
thermal properties, while also being able detect and characterize numerous types of
subsurface flaws that may be present, as well as calculate the depth at which these
flaws occur. Infrared Thermography has also been proven to accurately measure the
thickness of critical areas located on a turbine blade or airfoil and can also measure the
thickness of certain thermal barrier coatings that are applied to these parts during their
final stages of manufacturing.

Infrared “Active” c Process

Active Thermography typically involves the use of an outside heat source to thermally
excite the surface of a material; the surface of the material is then simultaneously
observed as the heat diffuses from the surface of the part into the bulk of the material,
using an Infrared Camera. Through this process, the thermal radiation emitted from the
surface of the material can be evaluated for any indications or subsurface anomalies
within that material. Indications or anomalies would then cause a disruption to the
diffusion process and could be observed in a real-time evaluation or within a captured
series of thermographic data. Thermography can be applied to a range of different
material types, such as various metals and alloys, composites, polymers, and also
ceramic materials.

The Equipment

Applus+ has multiple Infrared Thermography Inspection systems which allow us to

provide a wide range of inspection needs. In 2016, X-R-I Testing, an Applus+
company, successfully established a co-located operation with a customer in Covina,
California, USA. We have acquired Prime approvals to use Active Thermography as the
main inspection method for aerospace engine components, using a Robotic Infrared
Inspection System. This Robotic Inspection System has the ability to inspect a range of
components and can accommodate almost any geometric design. X-R-I Testing also has
a separate gantry inspection system that can be easily modified and used as a portable
inspection unit for field inspections. In addition, we have an Infrared Inspection System
that specializes in turbine blade inspections, where the main focus is to inspect for
blockages within the cooling channels, examine part thickness, and/or coating thickness.

Benefits of Infrared “Active” Thermography:

 · Faster than all conventional NDT Methods
· Wide area of inspection
· Non-contact with material
· Equipment can be portable and can be easily implemented in field
inspections
· Results can be easily interpreted
· Environmentally safe
Applications for Infrared “Active” Thermography:

· Delamination
· Adhesive disbonds
· Impact damage
· Corrosion
· Water entrapment
· Foreign Objet Debris (F.O.D) detection
· Thickness Measurement
· Porosity
· TBC coating measurement
· Crack detection

With the addition of Infrared Thermography, X-R-I Testing is now the first Prime
approved Inspection Company that can offer this advanced NDT Method as a service to
companies interested in utilizing this advanced technology. Take advantage of this high
quality, cost effective solution today!
The Applus+ RTD DTI Trekscan, a new addition to
the suite of tools for inspection of Difficult To Inspect
pipelines
The RTD DTI Trekscan is designed to inspect pipelines which are difficult to
inspect (DTI), saving cost and improving pipeline integrity.

In addition to the existing suite of tethered crawler tools that are used for the inspection
of Difficult To Inspect pipelines, Applus+ RTD introduces the free-swimming DTI
Trekscanfor the inspection of these challenging pipelines.

This pipeline testing tool will be saving cost while improving pipeline integrity. It is
an ultralight tool equipped with at least 160 ultrasonic transducers, resulting into 100%
circumferential inspection coverage of the pipeline.
This ultrasonic pipeline testing method provides a reliable and accurate inspection
service. Minimal line modifications are required to run this tool and a high first run
success rate is achieved.

DTI Trekscan was designed to traverse back-to-back 90 degrees 1D bends with a

speed of approximately 1.0 meter per second (2.2 mph) in liquid filled pipelines.

The latest ultrasonic technology and in-house developed analysis software guarantees
the best possible inspection results. The tools can be deployed in most refined
petroleum products, crude oils and water.

After the inspection, a Data Quality Assessment (DQA) is performed to check the
collected data. The preliminary inspection result reporting is already available
immediately after the inspection run and contains the most critical inspection results
from the pipeline. The dig sheets and detailed inspection results will be provided after
further analysis at the Applus+ RTD GPS headquarters.

Applications of DTI Trekscan include:

· Compressor and pump station interconnects

· Tank farm and interconnect lines
· Distribution lines
· New construction baseline inspection
· Pipelines without as-built drawings
· Product and fuel lines
· Upstream loading and gathering lines
· Water distribution lines
· Airport fuel lines
· Furnaces
· River crossings
On request of the client, additional assessments can be made regarding the detected
corrosion, mechanical damage, manufacturing metal loss, pipe deformation or
laminations and other such as Fitness for Service (FFS) assessment.

Applus+ RTD, in collaboration with our local and international partners, have extensive
experience in the application of these services in a wide range of industries including
oil and gas, petrochemical, refining, ore processing and handling, mining and power
generation industry.
Developments in digital radiographic inspection
In many cases a conventional radiographic inspection technique is used to control
welding quality during the construction of cross-country pipelines. For large-diameter
pipelines, battery-powered crawler systems are used, containing an X-ray tube that
operates inside the pipeline. As a consequence, the pipeline sections must be limited in
length to allow the deployment of a radiographic testing (RT) crawler system and to
enable the regular recharging of batteries.

Working principle and digital radiograph image

Another aspect of using so-called “conventional RT” is the use of analogue film that
needs to be processed at an external location. This is a time-consuming activity that
means that, in most cases, the inspection results are only available the next day.
Furthermore, due to radiation safety regulations, conventional RT inspection cannot be
executed in the direct vicinity of welding or other activities, therefore inspection work
must be carried out some way behind the mainline crew.
Digital radiography is a form of X-ray testing, where a digital X-ray sensor (detector)
is used instead of traditional photographic film. Instead of strapping a film around the
pipeline circumference, a detector and source X-ray are “rotated” around the pipe
circumference using a non-destructive testing procedure in order to reconstruct a
digital image and make it available as a digital file that can be presented for
interpretation.

Applus+ RTD has already developed a high-quality digital radiographic

inspectionsystem for mainly offshore applications. This system, known as “RTD
Rayscan”, was developed for diameters up to 12” (30 cm) and primarily focused on
stationary inspection applications such as lay barges.

RTD Rayscan small bore system in use on a lay barge

The shielded Rayscan Oyster system has recently been introduced in the onshore new
construction pipeline industry as Applus+ RTD’s next step in the development of digital
radiographic inspection systems. This system allows the digital RT inspection of
pipelines up to 36” (91 cm) and complies with the highest standards of digital
radiographic image quality. This development was undertaken with the objective of
reducing or even eliminating the traditional disadvantages of conventional RT on large-
diameter pipelines.

Unlike conventional RT inspection, the shielded Rayscan Oyster system can operate in
the near vicinity of the mainline welding crew during pipeline construction. This is
possible since the Rayscan Oyster system is operated from a mobile, 4×4 truck and
equipped with lead shielding against radiation. This shielding satisfies a maximum
radiation dose rate of 7.5µSv/hr when a barrier distance of approximately 3 metres is
applied.

Another advantage of the digital radiographic testing system is that the inspection
results are available as soon as the scan is completed. This allows for their immediate
interpretation and, therefore, the provision of direct, high-quality feedback to the
applied welding process. This operational mode is similar to that of AUT inspection.

Rayscan Oyster system in use on cross-country pipeline

The shielded Rayscan Oyster system has the following features and specifications:

· Scanning speeds of up to 20 mm/s

· Can be safely used directly behind a welding crew
· Inspection of pipe-wall thicknesses of up to 35 mm (DWSI technique),
fulfilling code and standard requirements
· High radiation-shielding options for safety purposes
· Immediate inspection results (digital film) after scanning is complete
· Digital storage of inspection results
· No chemicals or consumables (unlike with analogue film)
· No equipment in the pipe and no need for battery changes
· Reduced personnel costs (no darkroom technicians required)
With this innovation for large diameters, pipeline contractors can be far more flexible in
the pipeline-construction process, can significantly reduce their operational costs and
can operate under safer environmental and radiation conditions, using the shielded
Rayscan Oyster digital radiographic inspection system to control the welding process.

The shielded Rayscan Oyster system was successfully used on its first commercial job
in June 2016 in Kazakhstan. The system has received third-party qualification by Lloyds
Register and is compliant with EN/ISO 17636-2:2013 (Class B) and ASME V article 2.
Radiography Inspection Method through CR
If there is one thing in life we can always be certain of, it is change and the constant
evolution of technology. Change is not something we should fear, rather embrace; this is
especially true in technology. In recent years the technology used in the Radiography
Inspection method has gone through some phenomenal changes. The NDT industry is
becoming more acclimated in using Digital Radiography techniques including (CR)
Computed Radiography, (DDA) Digital Detector Array, and even (CT) Computed
Tomography. When these technologies are performed with proper techniques, they have
been proven to have better probability of detection than film. Recently, we have
experienced an increase in customer demands, across all industries, promoting the
change from film to a non-film CR process.

The CR Process

Rather than using expensive film and chemistry to produce a radiograph; CR uses a
reusable Imaging Plate. The Imaging Plates (IP) contains a layer of phosphors. When the
phosphor layer is exposed to x-Rays or gamma rays, a latent image is temporarily
stored in the IP. After exposure, the plate is transported to the CR system’s scanner.
Inside the scanner a focused laser beam triggers the release of the stored image as
visible light. That visible light is then detected by the PMT (Photo Multiplier Tube)
where it is converted into an electronic signal. This analog electronic signal is then sent
to the ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) where it is assigned a specific pixel value
based on the bit depth of the system. From the ADC, the raw image is sent to the
computer/software to be displayed and evaluated by an inspector on a high resolution
LCD screen. The IP is then erased by a specific wavelength of light to purge all
residual data from the Imaging Plate. Unlike film, the Imaging Plate is a reusable media.
Although the IP does not last indefinitely, if handled with care, they will last an
extended period of time. This process decreases the materials used, specifically, the
amount of film and processing chemistry.

The Equipment

We have introduced Computed Radiography in our Manchester, CT and Hampton, VA

facilities for the inspection of weldments and castings for our Aerospace customers.
Both of the labs have installed Fuji Dynamix HR-2 CR systems. Specifically, this
system provides both locations with the flexibility to meet industry requirements and
demands. The Fuji Dynamix HR-2 system conforms to the requirements of ASTM E
2446 as IP/Special and EN14781-1, and ISO 16371 as IP 1/40. This system also
provides the ability to select from 200µm, 100µm, 50µm, and even 25µm scan settings
depending on the resolution required to detect various defect sizes. When using a (UR-
1) Ultra High Resolution Imaging Plates with a 25µm scan has proven to have a (SRb)
Basic Spatial Resolution of 40µm. This means the system is capable of detecting
discontinuities less than .002” at 1X geometric magnification when needed.

Some of the Benefits of CR are listed below:

· Less environmental and safety concerns than film.

· Reduction in cost when compared to film.
· Image acquisition is faster than film, increasing production time.
 · More consistent image quality. Film processor chemistry can fluctuate
daily. CR scanner is more consistent and repeatable than film.
· Defect measurements, and annotations can be saved on the image for
customer review.
· Annotations on the images are much easier to read for future review of
the images.
· Images can be sent to customer on a USB memory stick. Saves on
shipping costs.
· Imaging Plates can be custom cut to fit complex geometries.
· Fuji HR 2 is capable of scanning imaging plates at 25 microns
allowing for resolution that rivals film.
· High spatial and density resolution and Excellent signal to noise ratio
(SNR).
· Images can be shared with the customer engineering or R&D
departments for problem solving/troubleshooting. Much more latitude
than film. The need for multi load film is virtually eliminated.
· Film is considered to be equivalent to 8 bit with 256 shades of gray,
Fuji HR 2 at 14 bit with 16,384 shades of gray. (Much more latitude and
dynamic range than film).
With the addition of CR in our Hampton, VA and Manchester, CT locations, we can
offer the CR process to companies interested in utilizing this technology for their
aerospace components. In the field, we offer CR for the inspection of piping and other
objects. Take advantage of this high quality, cost efficient solution.
Geo-hazard Monitoring of Pipelines using Strain
Gauges
Introduction
Pipelines are sometimes subjected to various geo-hazards such as long wall mining
subsidence and slope movement. A commonly practiced method to reduce stress in such
situations is to expose the affected portion of a pipeline. Monitoring of stress in an
affected pipeline is a necessary component of a proper remedial plan. But strain gauges
can only measure the changes in the strain with reference to the time of installation. An
exposed pipeline has pre-existing stresses from differential temperature and internal
pressure (‘pre-existing’ in the context of this note means stresses prior to the installation
of strain gauges). ASME B31 limits are based on total and equivalent stress values.
Therefore the pre-existing stresses and stress biaxiality (effect of hoop stress) should be
included in the stress calculations.
The pre-existing stresses are usually estimated based on some simplifying assumptions
and added to the measured stresses from strain gauges to calculate total stress. Pre-
existing stresses from pressure are usually assumed to be tensile, while the thermal
stresses are usually included only when they increase the total stresses. But these
assumptions sometimes lead to complexities and confusion with unwanted
consequences. In this article a common issue related to pipe internal pressure (and
sometimes negative differential temperature) is discussed and methods to avoid it are
explained.

Stress near Pipe Bends and Exposed Pipelines

Exposing a pipeline by excavating soil cover removes longitudinal and to some extent
lateral restraints from around the pipe. As a result (with some exceptions) thermal
stress due to positive temperature differentials between the time of pipeline installation
and the time the monitoring is performed. This is because the pipeline can move
sideways to release compression from a positive differential temperature that tends to
elongate the pipe. Depending on the amount of sag in a pipeline a negative differential
temperature may or may not create significant bending stress near pipe bends. Internal
pressure, on the other hand, usually induces significant stress at and near bends of an
exposed pipeline. Pressure tends to create tension in the longitudinal direction, creating
an effect similar to that of a negative differential temperature. But internal pressure also
acts on the pipe curvatures (thrust force and Bordon’s effect), and regardless of the
amount of sag in a pipeline this effect can generate significant stress particularly along
induction bends in a hilly terrain.

The Issue with Pre-Existing Stress Direction

Pressure (or temperature) induced stresses near bends are primarily bending, and
depending on the circumferential location, they can be compressive or tensile. The issue
arises when the direction (tensile vs compressive) of the ground movement induced
stress has an opposite sign to pre-existing stresses from pressure (or temperature), but
the stress engineer, not knowing the actual stress, conservatively assumes that they have
the same direction. The figure below schematically shows this problem.

In this figure the pre-existing stress from pressure at a gauge location is compressive
while the ground induced stress has a tensile trend (and the opposite is true at the
opposite clock position of the pipe cross-section). Therefore, the actual stress
decreases with ground movement. But in the calculations the pre-existing stress is
assumed to be tensile because the actual direction is unknown. As a result it appears as
if the stress in the pipe is increasing. As the stress approaches the limit (red line) the
operator may decide to shut in the pipeline, but to their surprise the stress appears to
increase even higher when the pressure is reduced! The author has experienced this
issue several times in actual monitoring projects where decreasing pipe pressure was
associated with an apparent increase in the stress. The lesson is that the pre-existing
stress should be determined realistically. As a minimum, an attempt should be made to
predict the direction of pre-existing stresses.
Predicting Pre-Existing Stresses
One method to estimate pre-existing stresses is through finite element analysis (FEA)
prior to strain gauge installation. Longitudinal stresses are very sensitive to actual sag
in a pipeline, which usually cannot be determined easily. But a proper FEA can usually
predict directions (tension versus compressive) of pre-existing stresses at various clock
positions. A more direct method is to lower and then increase pipe internal pressure
and monitor the gauges during the resulting pressure cycle. Then gauge responses can be
extrapolated back to a zero pressure condition to determine pressure induced stresses.
Due to potential interference of nonlinear effects, larger pressure cycles are preferred
although practical restrictions may limit the amplitude of the pressure change. When
construction documents of a pipeline contain ambient temperature records or at least
construction season, a similar test can be performed on differential temperature, but this
time more conveniently because every exposed pipeline experiences daily cycles of
temperature. Therefore, normal operation does not need to be interrupted. All that is
needed is a monitoring system which can measure and report pipe surface temperatures
along with strains at an adequate frequency (e.g. every 30 minutes) throughout the day.

.
CiBot carburization measurements: The process that
allows non-destructive inspection on radiant coils in
the furnaces

Carburization is the formation of metal carbides in a material as a result of exposure to

a carbon containing atmosphere. In service, it can result in loss of mechanical
properties over time in addition to wastage of the material.

Carburizing environments are commonly found in process piping and furnace tubes that
contain an excess of carbon-containing species which includes hydrocarbon gases or
carbon monoxide. Pyrolysis piping in ethylene and olefins plants are prime examples of
equipment that must be designed to resist severe carburization.

On this environment, CiBot carburization measurements designed by SCG Chemicals

allows non-destructive inspection on radiant coils in the furnaces. The visualized
result provides information about the assess coil condition and investigates causes of
abnormality, in order to solve the problem in a less intrusive and more effective way.
Besides, the solution optimizes ethylene cracking furnace coil lifetime and saves
inspection cost.

The process contains defining the work scope: number of pipes per furnace, which
material is used, what is the diameter, pitch and the design data of the furnace.

Then, the next step of the process is to measure. Depending on the number of
measurements two to four sensors can be used. After the measurements, data analysis
and report are performed.

The next step is to analyze the limit state and calculate the remaining lifetime. This will
give clear suggestions for improvement to optimize ethylene cracking furnace coil
lifetime and saves inspection costs.

In brief, the advantages for CiBot Carburization measurements are 14 times higher
resolution inspection, 7 times faster inspection, and that zero scaffolding are required.
Pulsed Eddy Current for corrosion
A break-through 2-year study in 2002 on the direct costs associated with metallic
corrosion in nearly every U.S. industry sector initiated by NACE International and
mandated by the U.S. Congress in 1999 as part of the Transportation Equity Act for the
21st Century (TEA-21) showed that the total annual estimated direct cost of corrosion in
the U.S. was a staggering $276 billion—approximately 3.1% of the nation’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP).

Figure 1: Corrosion costs per industry sector in B$

In particular:

Industry B$ Cost

Drinking Water and Sewer Systems B$ 36

Defense B$ 20

Pulp & Paper B$ 6

Petroleum Refining B$ 3.7

 Chemical, Petrochemical, & B$ 1.7
Pharmaceutical

Oil & Gas Exploration & Production B$ 1.4

G2MT Laboratories estimated total (direct and indirect) cost of corrosion for US
economy around $1.1 trillion in 2016.

When corrosion under insulation (CUI) occurs, it leads to environmental disasters and
fatal losses. Unfortunately the devices used to protect against it or to optimize the
thermal efficiency of the processes involved are the same that make finding it difficult:
most of the times it requires the shutdown of the process and/or the removal of the
insulation to make sure that CUI is not present.

A powerful tool for CUI is provided by Pulsed Eddy Current technology (PEC).

The PEC principle was applied first by Atlantic Richfield Co – ARCO to monitor the
condition of their own structures through insulation.

Applus RTD further developed the PEC technology and applications and renamed the
technology RTD-INCOTEST.

The PEC technology has been used for more than 20 years and other companies started
to propose new tools using the same technology now.

The PEC technology measures the decay time of the eddy current induced in the carbon
steel object under examination during pulsing. The decay time is proportional to the
volume of material under an area called “footprint”. The time of each reading is
compared with the time of the “reference point”. Because during the inspection the
footprint area stays fairly constant, comparing the volumes is the same as comparing the
wall thicknesses.

Locations with times longer than the time of the reference point are thicker than the
reference point. Locations with times shorter than the time of the reference point are
thinner than the reference point. The PEC system measures the resulting voltage with
time. The results are presented in Average Wall Thickness percentages (AWT%) and
reported with a color scale.

It is possible to analyze the signal and infer the quality of the reading, if other
electromagnetic influences are present, if the corrosion is internal or external. Under
certain conditions the results are comparable with the UT technique. With rough internal
and external surfaces the PEC technology is the best solution, since UT needs flat and
clean surfaces to be applicable.

The main advantage of the PEC technology is as screening tool: it gives information
about the status of the object(s) in order to isolate the areas of interest on which
to perform a deeper survey.

When many similar items are involved, as well as a single item with extended
dimensions (pipelines/vessels/tanks), it helps to prioritize and address the attention on
critical parts or items rather than planning random surveys.

Standard inspection techniques require insulation removal if applied from the outside;
or shut down and clean a confined space for personnel entry if applied from the
inside.

Let’s consider a costs comparison for the examination of an item with 30% corrosion
extension:

Standard approach Cost PEC approach Cost

1. Shutdown 300 1. PEC examination of the 100

entire object

2. Total insulation 100 Shutdown 30

removal

3. Cleaning of the entire 100 Insulation removal based on 30

area PEC findings
 4. Sandblasting the entire 100 Cleaning based on PEC 30
area findings

5. UT examination of the 100 5. Sandblasting based on 30

entire object PEC findings

– – 6. UT examination based on –
PEC findings

Total 700 Total 220

Table 1: cost comparison between standard and PEC approach for an item with 30%
corrosion extension

Table 1, even though with rough estimation costs, indicates that by using the PEC
Approach it is possible to cut costs and time on each of the 5 phases of the Standard
approach.

The PEC tecnology can be applied in service externally without removing the
insulation and therefore saving money, time and risk and increasing the efficency
of the planning and execution of the standard NDT.

Figure 2: The only way to check an insulated vessel for corrosion is measuring the
wall thickness internally or externally after shut down and insulation removal
Figure 3: The PEC technology allows identifying those areas that require attention
without shutdown and insulation removal

Applications:

· Insulated pipes and vessels (CUI)

· Insulated tanks
· Steel beams covered with concrete
· Spherical tank legs
· Piping in Nuclear Power Plants (FAC)

· Distillation columns
· Finned tubes in Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG)

· Non piggable buried lines

3D Modeling & BIM Using Laser Scanning
If you caught our last blog post here on storage tank inspections using laser scanning
technology, you may have wondered about some of our other services. One of the most
common uses of laser scanning is for purposes of as-built documentation of a site, then a
creation of a 3D Model. The models can be “agnostic” or “intelligent” – meaning that
one contains actual data about the materials and dimensions, and the other is simply a
model.

The intelligent model is known as a BIM in industry nomenclature, which is an acronym

for Building Information Modeling. A BIM is a digital representation of physical and
functional characteristics of a facility. A BIM is typically deployed internally as a
shared knowledge resource about a facility which serves as a foundation upon which
decision making can be made during the assets lifetime. Applus+ has helped clients
make informed and cost saving decisions about retrofits, shutdowns, construction, and
other scenarios by scanning their facility and providing them with a BIM.

The process

Here’s the process, broadly:

First we will provide an estimate of your site from aerial imagery, or a site visit. We’re
able to provide you with a GIS / KMZ file that you can then view on your workstation
for proposed scan locations. Since we provide a fixed number of scans at a fixed
amount of time, we can accurately estimate the cost.

From there we visit the site and get to scanning! Once we have completed the field
portion, the process of registration begins – which is where we assemble the data or
“stich” it together. The registered point cloud then goes to the modeling program of your
choice (NavisWorks, Revit, Cyclone, or AutoCAD Plant3D) and the modeling starts.
P&IDS provided by the client are referenced periodically throughout the modeling
process, and the information is plugged into the model so it becomes a true BIM. The
end result is a true to life BIM of your facility, which you can use to make reliable
decisions.

Some uses for a BIM using Laser Scanning

· As-built Documentation

· P&ID verification / QA
· Construction / Repair Planning
· Decision making across business units
· Mandated and or Jurisdictional requirements

· Remote job planning

· Remote safety planning

· Contractor collaboration
Thanks to the investments that Applus+ has made in the laser scanning / BIM industry
and our diverse and inclusive geographical footprint, we are able to provide this
service at low cost, high quality, and excellent turnaround times.
Crack Management Series
Within the past year, the American Petroleum Institute (API) published the first edition
of API RP 1176, a recommended practice for assessment and management of cracking in
pipelines. While the API guidance typically focuses on pipelines that transport liquids,
this document specifically states that the recommended practice is applicable to any
pipeline system used to transport hazardous liquid or natural gas, including those
defined in U.S. Title 49 CFR Parts 195 and 192.

rack management programs can be built following a Plan-Do-Check-Act process, an

iterative four-step management method used in business for the control and continual
improvement of processes and products. This process was incorporated in API 1173:
Pipeline Safety Management Systems. Crack management should:

· [Plan] Identify the extent to which cracking could affect pipeline

integrity
· [Do] Provide for timely assessment of the integrity of each segment
with respect to the possibility of cracking on a prioritized basis that is
informed by an assessment of risk
· [Check] Establish reassessment frequencies, as applicable
· [Act] Define preventive and mitigative measures to address relevant
threats including those not covered by integrity assessments
Pipeline operators now have access to a recommended practice document can provide
guidance in developing or making improvements to their crack management programs.
The challenges that they face are lack of expertise in all the topics covered by API
1176, limited resources to develop and implement a major addition their integrity
management plans, and incomplete knowledge concerning threats that potentially exist
on their pipeline systems.
Environmental cracking including stress corrosion cracking, long seam defects and
mechanical damage are the primary cracking threats mechanisms that need to be
understood for each pipeline segment. Assessment and modeling of these threats
requires the appropriate selection of detection and measurement technologies. If threats
are identified they will require the correct repair method. If the threats can change due
to pipeline operational practices or by third part damage mitigation and prevention
strategies must be implemented for the pipeline. Finally the crack management
program’s performance must be evaluated and possibly modified to address
deficiencies in the program.

Kiefner subject matter experts participated in the development of API RP 1176 as

contributors and technical editors and are well qualified to apply the content of this
document. There are eight basic elements of crack management to incorporate into
integrity management plans. These are:

1. Data Gathering, Review, and Integration

2. Incorporation of Crack Management Elements
3. Inspection, Mitigation, and/or Remediation
4. Continue to Assess for Cracks Periodically
5. Establish and Implement Preventive and Mitigative Measures
6. Evaluate Crack Management Elements
7. Manage Change
8. Update, Integrate, and Review Data
Non-destructive material verification uncovers
hidden manufacturing process flaws

In recent months, manufacturing in the U.S. has shown consistent gains in terms of
employment, productivity and wages. In April 2017 alone, an additional 6,000
manufacturing jobs were added to the economy, and associated industries that rely on
equipment, such as construction, mining, agriculture and utilities, are keeping
manufacturers busy with new orders both domestically and abroad.

Service providers in the energy sector are familiar with how a rise in manufacturing
productivity correlates to an increase in material scrutiny; more machines mean more
componentry and more room for manual or automated process error. When material
flaws exist on heavy-duty industrial sites that contain chemical and nuclear plants,
offshore oil rigs and subsurface infrastructure, for instance, the repercussions can be
deadly.

Expert engineers and technicians place a high priority on material verification of each
and every manufactured product used on a particular site or for a given purpose. One
crater, pinhole leak, void, stress crack or deviation that occurs during the manufacturing
process or after the component is brought online equates to production downtime;
creating unnecessary risk factors to employees and potential mechanical failures that
may increase the risk of the health and safety of all.
Material verification protocols come in many forms, but today’s most in-demand
services are of the non-destructive type.

NDT playing a larger role during inspections and risk mitigation.

The underlying factor to consider during any inspection process is how the inspected
machine or material was originally intended for use.

Engineers specifically design products to align and serve the purpose of the larger fit,
form and function of the product itself. This level of specificity means that every
component is inherently complex in its own way, and that traditional manufacturing
processes can sometimes inadvertently create long-term structural damage that
compounds over time.

For instance, castings used to mold and construct alloys can suffer from:

· Cracks
· Porosity
· Voids
· Inclusions
· Shrinkage
Consequently, alloy forgings may create:

· Laps
· Bursts
· Under- and overfills
· Deflections
· Buckling

These discontinuities are thus passed on to wrought materials in the form of:

· Seams
· Laps
· Laminations
 · Inclusions
· Structural deficiencies

All in all, if components have left the production floor at this stage then material
verification processes have already failed. If these flaws are not spotted during the
mechanical/automated fastening, installation or preliminary testing processes, operators
will face enormous consequences.

Imagine the danger of a deformed component making its way into an airplane build or a
natural gas pipeline – the potential for loss of life could be large.

With non-destructive testing, however, technicians and service providers are able to
inspect and verify all materials throughout each stage of the manufacturing process to
ensure all standards are met. NDT is predominantly used in applications or industries
that could affect human life as opposed to consumer products that don’t confer the same
level of hazards.
The advantages and disadvantages of advanced
NDT
Simple, conventional inspection methods such as ultrasonic thickness testing can
provide a useful, fast, low-cost method for assessing materials. However, in
comparison with advanced NDT, such methods are generally less repeatable, less
recordable, and have a lower Probability of Detection (PoD).
There are many advantages to be gained from advanced NDT, some of which will be
briefly described below. The major disadvantage of these high-end technologies is, of
course, their cost. Advanced NDT instruments may cost tens of thousands of pounds and
require significant levels of training to best exploit their benefits. For this reason,
Ashtead Technology has chosen to invest over £1 million in advanced NDT equipment;
the ability to rent this technology can dramatically lower the cost of entry to this market
for our customers in applications such as crack and flaw detection, weld evaluation,
tube testing, corrosion mapping, composite inspection etc.

The advantages of advanced NDT

In general terms, advanced instrumentation can, in the right hands, provide more
accurate and reliable inspection data with an improved PoD. The data is more
recordable and more repeatable. Advanced technologies such as Phased Array
Ultrasound (PAUT) or Eddy Current Array (ECA) provide more intuitive displays,
better ways of presenting data and generate inspection reports of higher value to clients.
For example, a colour-coded C-Scan is an intuitive way of representing inspection data.
Using different colours for different remaining wall thicknesses, for instance in PAUT
inspection of corroded or eroded pipes, produces an image that is easy to understand.
Similarly, many clients will find a colour-coded ECA C-Scan simple to interpret
compared with the conventional eddy current impedance plane display.

With greater control over instrument configuration, advanced NDT procedures can be
optimised for particular inspections. Setup files can be saved digitally and easily
transferred to others. Digital recording means that data can be emailed to colleagues
when a second opinion is required, or when complex data needs to be assessed by a
higher level technician. The ability to store large inspection data files also means that
new inspections can be compared with those done previously, to determine whether
there has been further deterioration, and to monitor, for example, crack growth. In
addition, the use of scanners improves repeatability and helps to ensure that sequential
inspections are directly comparable and less subjective. As a result of these
advantages, there has been strong growth in the advanced NDT sector, and this has been
reflected in the volume of advanced NDT instruments in the Ashtead Technology fleet
that are out on hire.

The disadvantages of advanced NDT

In comparison with conventional methods the operation of advanced instrumentation
requires a higher level of training and additional certification, which incurs more costs.
However, as discussed above, the deployment of advanced NDT delivers a superior,
and therefore higher £value service. Once advanced training is completed, as with any
skill, it is important to practise what was learned on the training course. This can only
be done if high-value advanced instrumentation is available. Again, purchase costs may
be preclusive, so renting can be a preferable option. In addition, instrument purchase
ties the user to a specific technology, whereas a rental fleet offers users the ability to
deploy the most appropriate kit for each job, or to hire equipment from different
manufacturers depending on the users’ training, experience and preference.

Purchase of a particular technology may also reduce or preclude access to other

methods that may be developed at a later date. It is important to remember that the
capital expenditure on advanced NDT equipment is not the only cost. Instrument
maintenance incurs a further cost, as does depreciation. Capital purchases will typically
be written off in the company accounts over a 3 year period, which means that this
equipment must generate substantial profit for a return on that investment. Also, there
are borrowing and opportunity costs - the money used in equipment purchase or to pay
interest could have been used for something else, such as training or hiring more staff.

To be a worthwhile investment, high value advanced NDT equipment must be used

regularly. Without an assured steady flow of work, there is a danger of underutilisation.
In contrast, renting provides a way to only pay for equipment when it is needed and not
to incur any costs in the intervening periods. In summary, the advantages of advanced
NDT can be enormous if the financial implications are managed effectively. One way to
achieve this is by taking advantage of rental instrumentation from Ashtead Technology.
NDT - Visual Inspection (VT) & Boroscopy
LMATS provides Visual inspection services on various engineering structures and
products from its several Australian Laboratories. LMATS comprises a team of
experienced Inspectors, Metallurgist, Engineers, NACE/AICIP/WTIA certified
Inspectors and NDT Personnel. The combination of these professionals from different
speciality area ensures that the end user is benefited by implementation of the most cost
effective inspection regime that will comply with the regulatory requirements, various
international Standards and provide fitness for purpose data.

Visual inspections also commonly called as Visual examination or Visual Testing VT on

objects, parts, components engineering structures is the oldest and reliable non-
destructive testing method. This test method is applied to almost every product as a
quality assurance tool. Generally, the most detrimental unacceptable discontinuities in
the objects or items are the surface opening discontinuities. Visual scanning, inspection
or testing can successfully detect these unacceptable surface discontinuities without
applying expensive test methods.

There are several aids to facilitate and enhance visual inspection. One of the best
example is Boroscopy. Boroscopy is applied whenever there is a restriction or access
limitations to examine the area of interest with naked eyes. Some of the examples of
restricted access are welded pipes, in-service piping, pressure vessel, engine parts, or
similar closed assemblies. LMATS staff used Olympus IPLEX LX Boroscope for visual
examination of internal surface. The use of Boroscopy enhances the examination
process, provides better understanding of the subject area and photographs of internal
surface for condition monitoring or traceable record keeping.
LMATS staff regularly performs visual examination of welded joints or fabricated
components, castings, forgings, rolled products and several other wrought products in
accordance with AS 1554 series, AS 4037, AS 4041, AS 3978, ASME V Article 9,
ASME IX QW 194, EN 970, ISO 10042, ASTM and similar other similar standards.
Contact one of the Australia wide LMATS Laboratories near you for your project
requirements. Currently LMATS provides Visual inspection and Boroscopy services in
VIC Victoria, NSW New South Wales, QLD Queensland, NT Northern Territory, WA
Western Australia, SA South Australia, TAS Tasmania and some of the international
locations as per clients requirements. LMATS NATA accredited labs are in Melbourne,
Sydney, Albury, Brisbane and Perth.
Weld Qualification Testing
A weld sample is produced prior to commencing the final welding of the product. All
welding variables are controlled and recorded when welding the weld sample or
coupon. These welded coupons are then tested to ensure that the weld joint will be of
acceptable quality.

The types of tests involved in weld testing are visual inspection, non-destructive testing
such as Radiographic examination (RT), Ultrasonic testing ( UT or UFD), Magnetic
Particle test (FMPI or MPI or MT) and Liquid Dye Penetrant Test ( DPI or PT)
followed by appropriate mechanical test such as Weld tensile test, transverse test,
longitudinal bend test, transverse bend test, impact test, macro examination or macro
test, hardness survey or hardness test, weld fracture test, nick break test, fillet break
test, corrosion resistance test, metallographic test, microstructure test, ferrite count test,
ferrite number test, post weld heat treatment or stress relieving and chemical analysis.

The welded sample or coupon is often tested at various stages of fabrication such as for
Welding Procedure Qualification Record (WPQR), to qualify Welding Procedure
Specification (WPS), to qualify welder as Welder Qualification Record ( WQ or WQR)
and to accept the final product in the form of Production Weld test.
LMATS provides services such as Welding Procedure Specification (WPS), Weld
Procedure Development, Welding Procedure Qualification record Witnessing (WPQR),
Welder Qualification Witnessing (WQR), WPQR Weld Qualification, Welder
(Performance) Qualification, Visual examination, Visual Inspection of welds, Non-
destructive examination of welds, all mechanical tests, welding machine calibration
such as Current calibration, Voltage calibration and gas flow calibration as required by
several standards. LMATS comprises a team of Metallurgist, Engineers, Welding
Engineers and technologist, Welding Supervisors and Inspectors, Scientist, Engineering
Technologist and Non-destructive testing Technologist. The combination of these
professionals from different speciality ensures that the welding task is completed
efficiently and within shortest duration. Weld testing is performed every hour in LMATS
laboratories.

LMATS Melbourne and Sydney laboratories performs these tests in accordance with
AS 3992, AS 1210, AS 4041, AS 4037, AS 2885.2 Tier 2, AS 1554.1, AS 1554.2, AS
1554.3, AS 1554.4, AS 1554.5, AS 1554.6, ASME IX, AWS D1.1, AWS D1.2,. AWS
D1.3, AWS D1.4, AWS D1.5, AWS D1.6, ISO 15614.1, ISO 15614.2, ISO 15614.3,
ISO 15614.4, ISO 15614.5, ISO 15614.6, ISO 15614.7, ISO 15614.8, ISO 15614.11,
ISO 15614.12, ISO 15614.13, ISO 9606.1, ISO 9606.2, ISO 9606.3, ISO 9606.4, ISO
9606.5, EN 287.1, EN 287.2, EN 287.3, EN 287.4, EN 288.1, EN 288.2, EN 288.3, EN
288.4, DNV F101, API 650, EXXON Mobil, ESSO Shell specification and similar
national and international standards.
Basic Principles of Liquid Penetrant Inspection
Liquid penetrant inspection (LPI), also known as dye penetrant inspection (DPI) or
penetrant testing (PT), was first developed in the early 1940s to detect flaws on the
surface of materials. Although there are more options in the way the test is performed,
the basic principles have not changed over the years.

Liquid penetrant inspection is a nondestructive test method which does not harm the
samples or parts being inspected. The test is very effective in detecting porosity, cracks,
fractures, laps, seams and other flaws that are open to the surface of the test piece and
may be caused by fatigue, impact, quenching, machining, grinding, forging, bursts,
shrinkage or overload. As a result, it is often used on lots of machined parts, as well as
weldments, manufactured products, castings, forgings and other items that will be
placed into service. Liquid penetrant inspection can be used successfully on nonporous
and fairly smooth materials such as metals, glass, plastics and fired ceramics.

This test is named for the liquid, called penetrant, that is applied to the sample during
testing in order to make any surface flaws more visible. A variety of penetrant materials
are available and selection is often based on the required sensitivity level of the test,
equipment available at the test site to conduct the test and other factors:

· The penetrant comes in two types of liquids-visible dye (colored red) and
fluorescent dye (colored green-yellow).
· Fluorescent penetrants are also classified by sensitivity levels ranging from
one through four, with four being the most sensitive for detecting the finest flaws.
· Penetrants can be washable with water, removable with a solvent or require
treatment with an emulsifier that is lipophilic (oil-based) or hydrophilic (water-
based).

The Process
The testing process can be broken down into the following distinct steps:
1. Pre-cleaning
2. Penetrant application
3. Penetrant dwell time
4. Penetrant removal
5. Developer application
6. Developer dwell time
7. Inspection
8. Post-cleaning

· Pre-cleaning. The very first step is a thorough surface cleaning to be sure

the test piece is free of oil, grease, water, heat-treat scale, paint, plating and other
contaminants that may prevent liquid penetrant from entering flaws. A solvent is
often used for this step, but the test sample may require steam, vapor, chemical or
ultrasonic cleaning. Parts that have been machined, sanded or grit-blasted may
require etching to remove material that could be block the opening of the flaw and
prevent the penetrant from entering.
· Penetrant application. Both the visible and fluorescent dye penetrants can
be applied to the test sample by spraying, brushing or immersing the part in a
penetrant bath. The choice of application is usually a matter of preference, but can
be influenced by the size and shape of the test piece, the equipment available for
conducting the test or the requirements of the test specification(s) applicable to
the samples.
· Penetrant dwell time. The liquid penetrant is left on the surface for a
sufficient time to allow the liquid to seep into any surface openings or defects.
The total time that this liquid is in contact with the surface of the sample is called
the penetrant dwell time. Dwell time varies for different types of penetrants and
is generally dictated by the test specifications called out for the testing. The
surface finish, temperature and type of the material also will affect dwell
requirements.
· Penetrant removal. After the dwell time has elapsed, the excess liquid
penetrant is carefully removed from the surface to avoid removing any of the
captured penetrant from the flaw or defect. When working with a visible dye,
excess penetrant is usually removed with a solvent (solvent-removable). Excess
fluorescent dye may be water-washable and rinsed with water or emulsifiable-
post and first treated with an emulsifier before rinsing. When using the water-
washable or post-emulsifiable methods, the part is placed in a low-temperature
oven and allowed time to dry before applying the developer.
 · Developer application. A thin layer of developer is applied to the part to
assist in drawing penetrant trapped in flaws back to the surface where it will be
visible as indications. Developers may be applied by dusting with a dry powder
or spraying a wet developer. The resulting indications are larger than the actual
flaw and have a high level of contrast between the penetrant and developer,
making them more visible to aid in inspection.
· Developer dwell time. The developer remains on the sample piece for the
required amount of time stated in the test specification to allow indications to
develop prior to inspection.
· Inspection. The inspection process is performed by trained and certified
inspectors using a visual examination. When working with fluorescent penetrants,
indications must be viewed under darkened conditions with a high-intensity UV
lamp or black light. Testing with a visible dye requires sufficient white light. The
sample will be accepted or rejected based on the specification or acceptance
criteria followed for the order. The inspector also will attempt to determine the
origin of the discontinuity.
· Post-cleaning. The final step in the process is to thoroughly clean the
surface of the sample to remove any penetrant testing residues.

Inspector Qualifications
The American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) has set training
recommendations and developed examinations to certify Level I, II and III inspectors to
perform liquid penetrant inspection for various requirements and industries such as
military and nuclear. A national aerospace standard specifies the requirements for the
certification and qualification of LPI personnel for aerospace applications. In selecting
a testing laboratory, it is important to verify that inspectors are qualified and certified in
accordance with the applicable standard and that the laboratory has any required
customer or end-user approvals.

Advantages and Limitations

Liquid penetrant inspection is a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive means of surface
inspection. Large quantities of parts or materials can be inspected quickly. Parts of
almost any shape and size can be inspected, although the capacity of equipment and the
facility used for testing can create limitations. This type of testing can be performed on
most materials that are not extremely rough or porous. This process is nondestructive so
the test samples are not damaged during testing. LPI is highly sensitive to small surface
discontinuities. Indications are produced directly on the surface of the part and provide
a visual representation of the flaw.

One of the major limitations of a penetrant inspection is that flaws must be open to the
surface. Also, surface finish and roughness can affect inspection sensitivity. Pre-
cleaning of parts is critical since contaminants can mask defects, and post-cleaning is
required to remove residues.

Tech Tips
· Liquid penetrant inspection can be used successfully on nonporous and
fairly smooth materials such as metals, glass, plastics and fired ceramics.
· In selecting a testing laboratory, it is important to verify that inspectors are
qualified and certified in accordance with the applicable standard and that the
laboratory has any required customer or end-user approvals.
· Large quantities of parts or materials can be inspected quickly.
Developers
The role of the developer is to pull the trapped penetrant material out of defects and
spread it out on the surface of the part so it can be seen by an inspector. The fine
developer particles both reflect and refract the incident ultraviolet light, allowing more
of it to interact with the penetrant, causing more efficient fluorescence. The developer
also allows more light to be emitted through the same mechanism. This is why
indications are brighter than the penetrant itself under UV light. Another function that
some developers perform is to create a white background so there is a greater degree of
contrast between the indication and the surrounding background.

Developer Forms
The AMS 2644 and Mil-I-25135 classify developers into six standard forms. These
forms are listed below:

1. Form a - Dry Powder

2. Form b - Water Soluble
3. Form c - Water Suspendable
4. Form d - Nonaqueous Type 1 Fluorescent (Solvent Based)
5. Form e - Nonaqueous Type 2 Visible Dye (Solvent Based)
6. Form f - Special Applications

The developer classifications are based on the method that the developer is applied.
The developer can be applied as a dry powder, or dissolved or suspended in a liquid
carrier. Each of the developer forms has advantages and disadvantages.

Dry Powder
Dry powder developer is generally considered to be the least sensitive but it is
inexpensive to use and easy to apply. Dry developers are white, fluffy powders that can
be applied to a thoroughly dry surface in a number of ways. The developer can be
applied by dipping parts in a container of developer, or by using a puffer to dust parts
with the developer. Parts can also be placed in a dust cabinet where the developer is
blown around and allowed to settle on the part. Electrostatic powder spray guns are
also available to apply the developer. The goal is to allow the developer to come in
contact with the whole inspection area.
Unless the part is electrostatically charged, the powder will only adhere to areas where
trapped penetrant has wet the surface of the part. The penetrant will try to wet the
surface of the penetrant particle and fill the voids between the particles, which brings
more penetrant to the surface of the part where it can be seen. Since dry powder
developers only stick to the area where penetrant is present, the dry developer does not
provide a uniform white background as the other forms of developers do. Having a
uniform light background is very important for a visible inspection to be effective and
since dry developers do not provide one, they are seldom used for visible inspections.
When a dry developer is used, indications tend to stay bright and sharp since the
penetrant has a limited amount of room to spread.

Water Soluble
As the name implies, water soluble developers consist of a group of chemicals that are
dissolved in water and form a developer layer when the water is evaporated away. The
best method for applying water soluble developers is by spraying it on the part. The
part can be wet or dry. Dipping, pouring, or brushing the solution on to the surface is
sometimes used but these methods are less desirable. Aqueous developers contain
wetting agents that cause the solution to function much like dilute hydrophilic emulsifier
and can lead to additional removal of entrapped penetrant. Drying is achieved by
placing the wet but well drained part in a recirculating, warm air dryer with the
temperature held between 70 and 75°F. If the parts are not dried quickly, the indications
will will be blurred and indistinct. Properly developed parts will have an even, pale
white coating over the entire surface.

Water Suspendable
Water suspendable developers consist of insoluble developer particles suspended in
water. Water suspendable developers require frequent stirring or agitation to keep the
particles from settling out of suspension. Water suspendable developers are applied to
parts in the same manner as water soluble developers. Parts coated with a water
suspendable developer must be forced dried just as parts coated with a water soluble
developer are forced dried. The surface of a part coated with a water suspendable
developer will have a slightly translucent white coating.

Nonaqueous
Nonaqueous developers suspend the developer in a volatile solvent and are typically
applied with a spray gun. Nonaqueous developers are commonly distributed in aerosol
spray cans for portability. The solvent tends to pull penetrant from the indications by
solvent action. Since the solvent is highly volatile, forced drying is not required. A
nonaqueous developer should be applied to a thoroughly dried part to form a slightly
translucent white coating.
Discuss advantages, limitations and applications
of NDT method
Advantages
● Provides permanent record on film
● Technique standardized
● Reference standards available
● Adjustable energy level gives high sensitivity
● Fluoroscopy techniques available

Limitations
● Trained technician needed
● Radiation hazards
● High cost of equipment
● Power source needed

Gamma-ray Radiography
Advantages

● Provides permanent record on film

● Technique standardized
● Reference standards available
● Low initial cost
● Portable, independent of power supply
● Makes panoramic exposures

Limitations

● Trained technician needed

● Radiation hazards
● Fixed energy levels per source
 ● Source looses strength continuously
● Generally lower sensitivity and definition than x-ray radiography

Ultrasonic Testing
Applications

● All types of welded work in metallic and non metallic materials

Advantages

● Safe to use
● Fast method
● Results available immediately
● Sensitive
● Indicates presence of laminations and other plannar defects
● Indicates depth of flaw

Limitations

● Entirely dependent on operator skill

● Unsuitable for welding of complex shape or configuration
● Requires surface contact
● Surface must be clean and smooth

Magnetic Particle Testing

Applications

● Welds, particularly fillet welds, in all ferro magnetic materials

Types of Faults Indicated

● Cracks, Porosity, Inclusions and discontinuities at or close to the surface

Advantages

● Simple to use and interpret

● Portable and relatively inexpensive
Limitations

● Material must be ferro magnetic

● Demagnetization may be needed
● Power source required
Electromagnetic Testing Inspections
What is an electromagnetic testing inspection?
An electromagnetic testing inspection is a form of NDT/NDE inspection with a wide
range of applications. From boilers, storage tanks and heat exchangers to building or
pipeline inspection, electromagnetic testing can detect even the smallest defects. If you
need NDT inspection in Hinton or anywhere else in Alberta, electromagnetic testing can
help you identify potential problems and avoid disaster.

How does it work?

Electromagnetic testing is just one technique that can be used to inspect the integrity of a
pipeline. It provides a quick, accurate measure of both the internal and external
condition of a structure. With the use of electric currents and/or magnetic fields,
electromagnetic testing allows NDT companies to observe and measure the
electromagnetic response of a test object. This response can then tell us if defects such
as corrosion, pitting, wall loss, erosion or cracking pose a threat to your pipeline.
There are a number of different electromagnetic tests used to perform pipeline
inspections including:

● Remote field testing (RFT)—Used for both interior and exterior steel pipeline
inspection.
● Magnetic flux leakage testing (MFL)—Used for large diameter steel pipe
inspection.
● Magnetic particle inspection (MPI)—Detects cracks in the surface of metal-
based pipeline.
● Eddy-current testing (ECT)—Detects surface cracks and corrosion in metal and
non-metal pipes and structures.
● Pulsed eddy-current (PECT)—Used to detect large-volume metal loss in steel
objects.
Eddy-current testing is the most commonly used form of electromagnetic testing. Using a
specialized coil to generate a magnetic field to interact with the test object, the
variations in the eddy current are measured to allow defects in the test object to be
detected.

What are the benefits of electromagnetic NDT?

NDT inspection is essential for ensuring the safety and productivity of pipelines
operating in Hinton and elsewhere in Alberta. As part of regular pipeline maintenance,
NDT companies like 20/20 NDT can help you prolong the life of your pipes, avoid
service interruptions and minimize the risk of ecological disasters. Electromagnetic
testing inspections are efficient, non-intrusive tests with a number of advantages:

● No contact with test object is required

● Can penetrate external coatings
● Can detect both internal and external defects
● Can detect very small cracks
● Able to inspect inaccessible structures
● Test result data can be stored
● Measurable and immediate results
● Portable
PRINCIPLE OF DIRECT PRESSURE
(DROP) TYPE AIR LEAK TEST
In this method, a leak is detected by charging test pressure to the work and measuring
the change in the test pressure in the work after a given time.

Relationship of pressure change and leak inside the work

Pressure change inside the work during the air leak test is shown in the right
figure. Pressure inside the work sharply increases during the pressurization
process. This is because the temperature inside the work increases by
pressurization and affects the pressure. The pressure change by temperature and
other effects is stabilized (balancing process) and then the leak is measured
(detection process). Constant value will be maintained and no pressure change in
work will be detected when the work has no leak. However, the value will
decrease at a constant rate due to decrease of pressure inside the work when the
work has a leak. The direct pressure type air leak tester detects leak of work
through this pressure change and judges the result.
PRINCIPLE OF DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE TYPE LEAK TEST
In the field of medicine, the use of a balancing scale is often used as a precise method
for calculating arbitrarily small amounts of substance. The instrument is used to
precisely measure a weight close to the balancing weight (a reference value) by
increasing the weight value on the opposite side. The differential pressure type air leak
tester uses the same principle as the balancing scale. The same air pressure is charged
to both the work (tested work) and the master work (work with no leak) and the change
in pressure balance within a fixed time is checked for the presence of a leak.
For the differential pressure type leak test, the leak test is performed through four
processes; pressuring, balancing, detection and exhaust.

Pressurizing Process Balancing Process Detection Process

Close the valve and wait Detect and measure the

until pressure inside the pressure difference
tested work [Link] between the tested
there is a leak, air flows out work and master work
Charge air in the tested and the pressure inside the through the differential
work and master work. work decreases pressure sensor.

Relationship of pressure change and leak inside work

Pressure change inside the work during the air leak test is shown the below figure.
Pressure inside the work and master work sharply increases during the pressurization
process. This is because the temperature inside the work and master work increases by
pressurization and affects the pressure. The pressure change by temperature and other
effects is stabilized (balancing process) and then the leak is measured (detection
process). After the balancing process, the constant value will be maintained with no
pressure change in the master work since it has no leak. However, when the work has a
leak, the value will decrease at a constant rate due to decrease of pressure inside the
work. Also, when the work does not have any leak, the constant value will be
maintained with no pressure change inside the work. A leak is detected by calculating
the difference of pressure change between the master work and work.
FUKUDA provides various models of differential pressure type air leak testers.
FUKUDA also has a lineup of products with additional functions according to
specifications and applications requested by customers.
Magnetic Field Characteristics
Magnetic Field In and Around a Bar Magnet
As discussed previously, a magnetic field is a change in energy within a volume of
space. The magnetic field surrounding a bar magnet can be seen in the magnetograph
below. A magnetograph can be created by placing a piece of paper over a magnet and
sprinkling the paper with iron filings. The particles align themselves with the lines of
magnetic force produced by the magnet. The magnetic lines of force show where the
magnetic field exits the material at one pole and reenters the material at another pole
along the length of the magnet. It should be noted that the magnetic lines of force exist in
three dimensions but are only seen in two dimensions in the image.

It can be seen in the magnetograph that there are poles all along the length of the magnet
but that the poles are concentrated at the ends of the magnet. The area where the exit
poles are concentrated is called the magnet's north pole and the area where the entrance
poles are concentrated is called the magnet's south pole.

Magnetic Fields in and around Horseshoe and Ring Magnets

Magnets come in a variety of shapes and one of the more common is the horseshoe (U)
magnet. The horseshoe magnet has north and south poles just like a bar magnet but the
magnet is curved so the poles lie in the same plane. The magnetic lines of force flow
from pole to pole just like in the bar magnet. However, since the poles are located
closer together and a more direct path exists for the lines of flux to travel between the
poles, the magnetic field is concentrated between the poles.
If a bar magnet was placed across the end of a horseshoe magnet or if a magnet was
formed in the shape of a ring, the lines of magnetic force would not even need to enter
the air. The value of such a magnet where the magnetic field is completely contained
with the material probably has limited use. However, it is important to understand that
the magnetic field can flow in loop within a material. (See section on circular
magnetism for more information).

General Properties of Magnetic Lines of Force

Magnetic lines of force have a number of important properties, which include:

● They seek the path of least resistance between opposite magnetic poles. In a
single bar magnet as shown to the right, they attempt to form closed loops from
pole to pole.
● They never cross one another.
● They all have the same strength.
● Their density decreases (they spread out) when they move from an area of higher
permeability to an area of lower permeability.
● Their density decreases with increasing distance from the poles.
● They are considered to have direction as if flowing, though no actual movement
occurs.
● They flow from the south pole to the north pole within a material and north pole to
south pole in air.
Electromagnetic Fields

Magnets are not the only source of magnetic fields. In 1820, Hans Christian
Oersted discovered that an electric current flowing through a wire caused a
nearby compass to deflect. This indicated that the current in the wire was
generating a magnetic field. Oersted studied the nature of the magnetic field
around the long straight wire. He found that the magnetic field existed in circular
form around the wire and that the intensity of the field was directly proportional
to the amount of current carried by the wire. He also found that the strength of
the field was strongest next to the wire and diminished with distance from the
conductor until it could no longer be detected. In most conductors, the magnetic
field exists only as long as the current is flowing (i.e. an electrical charge is in
motion). However, in ferromagnetic materials the electric current will cause
some or all of the magnetic domains to align and a residual magnetic field will
remain.
Oersted also noticed that the direction of the magnetic field was dependent on
the direction of the electrical current in the wire. A three-dimensional
representation of the magnetic field is shown below. There is a simple rule for
remembering the direction of the magnetic field around a conductor. It is called
the right-hand clasp rule. If a person grasps a conductor in one's right hand with
the thumb pointing in the direction of the current, the fingers will circle the
conductor in the direction of the magnetic field.

A word of caution about the right-hand clasp rule

For the right-hand rule to work, one important thing that must be remembered
about the direction of current flow. Standard convention has current flowing
from the positive terminal to the negative terminal. This convention is credited
to Benjamin Franklin who theorized that electric current was due to a positive
charge moving from the positive terminal to the negative terminal. However, it
was later discovered that it is the movement of the negatively charged electron
that is responsible for electrical current. Rather than changing several centuries
of theory and equations, Franklin's convention is still used today.
Magnetic Field Produced by a Coil

When a current carrying conductor is formed into a loop or several loops to form a coil,
a magnetic field develops that flows through the center of the loop or coil along its
longitudinal axis and circles back around the outside of the loop or coil. The magnetic
field circling each loop of wire combines with the fields from the other loops to
produce a concentrated field down the center of the coil. A loosely wound coil is
illustrated below to show the interaction of the magnetic field. The magnetic field is
essentially uniform down the length of the coil when it is wound tighter.
The strength of a coil's magnetic field increases not only with increasing current but
also with each loop that is added to the coil. A long, straight coil of wire is called a
solenoid and can be used to generate a nearly uniform magnetic field similar to that of a
bar magnet. The concentrated magnetic field inside a coil is very useful in magnetizing
ferromagnetic materials for inspection using the magnetic particle testing method.
Please be aware that the field outside the coil is weak and is not suitable for
magnetizing ferromagnetic materials.

Suspension Liquids
Suspension liquids used in the wet magnetic particle inspection method can be either a
well refined light petroleum distillate or water containing additives. Petroleum-based
liquids are the most desirable carriers because they provided good wetting of the
surface of metallic parts. However, water-based carriers are used more because of low
cost, low fire hazard, and the ability to form indications quicker than solvent-based
carriers. Water-based carriers must contain wetting agents to disrupt surface films of oil
that may exist on the part and to aid in the dispersion of magnetic particles in the carrier.
The wetting agents create foaming as the solution is moved about, so anti-foaming
agents must be added. Also, since water promotes corrosion in ferrous materials,
corrosion inhibitors are usually added as well.

Petroleum based carriers are primarily used in systems where maintaining the proper
particle concentration is a concern. The petroleum based carriers require less
maintenance because they evaporate at a slower rate than the water-based carriers.
Therefore, petroleum based carriers might be a better choice for a system that gets only
occasional use or when regularly adjusting the carrier volume is undesirable. Modern
solvent carriers are specifically designed with properties that have flash points above
200oF and keep nocuous vapors low. Petroleum carriers are required to meet certain
specifications such as AMS 2641.

Dry Particle Inspection

In this magnetic particle testing technique, dry particles are dusted onto the surface of
the test object as the item is magnetized. Dry particle inspection is well suited for the
inspections conducted on rough surfaces. When an electromagnetic yoke is used, the AC
or half wave DC current creates a pulsating magnetic field that provides mobility to the
powder. The primary applications for dry powders are unground welds and rough as-
cast surfaces.
Dry particle inspection is also used to detect shallow subsurface cracks. Dry particles
with half wave DC is the best approach when inspecting for lack of root penetration in
welds of thin materials. Half wave DC with prods and dry particles is commonly used
when inspecting large castings for hot tears and cracks.

Steps in performing an inspection using dry particles

Prepare the part surface - the surface should be relatively clean but this is not as
critical as it is with liquid penetrant inspection. The surface must be free of grease, oil
or other moisture that could keep particles from moving freely. A thin layer of paint, rust
or scale will reduce test sensitivity but can sometimes be left in place with adequate
results. Specifications often allow up to 0.003 inch (0.076 mm) of a nonconductive
coating (such as paint) and 0.001 inch max (0.025 mm) of a ferromagnetic coating (such
as nickel) to be left on the surface. Any loose dirt, paint, rust or scale must be removed.

Apply the magnetizing force - Use permanent magnets, an electromagnetic yoke,

prods, a coil or other means to establish the necessary magnetic flux.

Dust on the dry magnetic particles - Dust on a light layer of magnetic particles.

Gently blow off the excess powder - With the magnetizing force still applied, remove
the excess powder from the surface with a few gentle puffs of dry air. The force of the
air needs to be strong enough to remove the excess particles but not strong enough to
dislodge particles held by a magnetic flux leakage field.

Terminate the magnetizing force - If the magnetic flux is being generated with an
electromagnet or an electromagnetic field, the magnetizing force should be terminated. If
permanent magnets are being used, they can be left in place.

Inspect for indications - Look for areas where the magnetic particles are clustered.

Wet Suspension Inspection

Wet suspension magnetic particle inspection, more commonly known as wet magnetic
particle inspection, involves applying the particles while they are suspended in a liquid
carrier. Wet magnetic particle inspection is most commonly performed using a
stationary, wet, horizontal inspection unit but suspensions are also available in spray
cans for use with an electromagnetic yoke. A wet inspection has several advantages
over a dry inspection. First, all of the surfaces of the component can be quickly and
easily covered with a relatively uniform layer of particles. Second, the liquid carrier
provides mobility to the particles for an extended period of time, which allows enough
particles to float to small leakage fields to form a visible indication. Therefore, wet
inspection is considered best for detecting very small discontinuities on smooth
surfaces. On rough surfaces, however, the particles (which are much smaller in wet
suspensions) can settle in the surface valleys and lose mobility, rendering them less
effective than dry powders under these conditions.

Steps in performing an inspection using wet suspensions

Prepare the part surface - Just as is required with dry particle inspections, the surface
should be relatively clean. The surface must be free of grease, oil and other moisture
that could prevent the suspension from wetting the surface and preventing the particles
from moving freely. A thin layer of paint, rust or scale will reduce test sensitivity, but
can sometimes be left in place with adequate results. Specifications often allow up to
0.003 inch (0.076 mm) of a nonconductive coating (such as paint) and 0.001 inch max
(0.025 mm) of a ferromagnetic coating (such as nickel) to be left on the surface. Any
loose dirt, paint, rust or scale must be removed.
Apply the suspension - The suspension is gently sprayed or flowed over the surface of
the part. Usually, the stream of suspension is diverted from the part just before the
magnetizing field is applied.

Apply the magnetizing force - The magnetizing force should be applied immediately
after applying the suspension of magnetic particles. When using a wet horizontal
inspection unit, the current is applied in two or three short busts (1/2 second) which
helps to improve particle mobility.

Inspect for indications - Look for areas where the magnetic particles are clustered.
Surface discontinuities will produce a sharp indication. The indications from
subsurface flaws will be less defined and lose definition as depth increases.

Inspection Using Magnetic Rubber

The magnetic rubber technique was developed for detecting very fine cracks and is
capable of revealing finer cracks than other magnetic techniques. Additionally, the
technique can be use to examine difficult to reach areas, such as the threads on the
inside diameter of holes, where the molded plugs can be removed and examined under
ideal conditions and magnification if desired. The tradeoff, of course, is that inspection
times are much longer.

The techniques uses a liquid (uncured) rubber containing suspended magnetic particles.
The rubber compound is applied to the area to be inspected on a magnetized component.
Inspections can be performed using either an applied magnetic field, which is
maintained while the rubber sets (active field), or the residual field from magnetization
of the component prior to pouring the compound. A dam of modeling clay is often used
to contain the compound in the region of interest. The magnetic particles migrate to the
leakage field caused by a discontinuity. As the rubber cures, discontinuity indications
remain in place on the rubber.
The rubber is allowed to completely set, which takes from 10 to 30 minutes. The rubber
cast is removed from the part. The rubber conforms to the surface contours and provides
a reverse replica of the surface. The rubber cast is examined for evidence of
discontinuities, which appear as dark lines on the surface of the molding. The molding
can be retained as a permanent record of the inspection.

Magnetic rubber methods requires similar magnetizing systems used for dry method
magnetic particle tests. The system may include yokes, prods, clamps, coils or central
conductors. Alternating, direct current, or permanent magnets may be used to draw the
particles to the leakage fields. The direct current yoke is the most common
magnetization source for magnetic rubber inspection.
Continuous and Residual Magnetization
Techniques
In magnetic particle inspection, the magnetic particles can either be applied to the
component while the magnetizing force is applied, or after it has been stopped.
Continuous magnetization describes the technique where the magnetizing force is
applied and maintained while the magnetic particles are dusted or flowed onto the
surface of the component. In a wet horizontal testing unit, the application of the particles
is stopped just before the magnetizing force is applied; but, since particles are still
flowing over and covering the surface, this is considered continuous magnetization.
Residual magnetization, on the other hand, describes the technique where the
magnetizing force is applied to magnetize the component and then stopped before
applying the magnetic particles. Only the residual field of the magnetized component is
used to attract magnetic particles and produce an indication.

The continuous technique is generally chosen when maximum sensitivity is

required because it has two distinct advantages over the residual technique.
First, the magnetic flux will be highest when current is flowing and, therefore,
leakage fields will also be strongest. Field strength in a component depends
primarily on two variables: the applied magnetic field strength and the
permeability of the test object. Viewing the upper right portion of the hysteresis
loop below, it is evident that the magnetic flux will be the strongest when the
magnetizing force is applied. If the magnetizing force is strong enough, the flux
density will reach the point of saturation. When the magnetizing force is
removed, the flux density will drop to the retentivity point. The two gray traces
show the paths the flux density would follow if the magnetizing force was
applied and removed at levels below that required to reach saturation. It can be
seen that the flux density is always highest while the magnetizing current is
applied. This is independent of the permeability of a material.

However, the permeability of the material is very important. High permeability

materials do not retain a strong magnetic field so flux leakage fields will be
extremely weak or nonexistent when the magnetizing force is removed.
Therefore, materials with high magnetic permeability are not suited for
inspection using the residual technique. When the residual technique is used to
inspect materials with low permeability, care should be taken to ensure that the
residual field is of the necessary strength to produce an indication. Defects
should be relatively large and surface breaking to have a high probability of
detection using the residual method. The second advantage of the continuous
technique is that when current is used to generate the magnetizing force, it can
provide added particle mobility. Alternating or pulsed direct current will cause
the particles to vibrate and move slightly on the surface of the part. This
movement allows the particles to travel to leakage sites. More particles mean
brighter indications compared to those formed using the residual technique.
One disadvantage of the continuous method is that heating of the component
occurs when using direct magnetization. For example, when prods are used, they
may create areas of localized heating when the continuous technique is used.
This may be acceptable on components that will be further processed (removing
this condition), but machined or in-service components may be adversely
affected by this condition. While generally not recommended, the residual
technique does have its uses. It is commonly used in automated inspection
systems to inspect materials with high retentivity. To speed throughput,
automated systems often magnetize the parts and then submerge them in an
agitated magnetic particle bath or pass them through a spray station. Closely
controlled automated systems provided good results using the residual
magnetism technique.

Field Direction and Intensity

Field Direction
As discussed previously, determining the direction of the field is important when
conducting a magnetic particle inspection because the defect must produce a
significant disturbance in the magnetic field to produce an indication. It is
difficult to detect discontinuities that intersect the magnetic field at an angle less
than 45o. When the orientation of a defect is not well established, components
should be magnetized in a minimum of two directions at approximately right
angles to each other. Depending on the geometry of the component, this may
require longitudinal magnetization in two or more directions, multiple
longitudinal and circular magnetization or circular magnetization in multiple
directions. Determining strength and direction of the fields is especially critical
when inspecting with a multidirectional machine. If the fields are not balanced, a
vector field will be produced that may not detect some defects.
Depending on the application, pie gages, QQI's, or a gauss meter can be used to
check the field direction. The pie gage is generally only used with dry powder
inspections. QQI shims can be used in a variety of applications but are the only
method recommended for use in establishing balanced fields when using
multidirectional equipment.
Field Strength
The applied magnetic field must have sufficient strength to produce a
satisfactory indication, but not so strong that it produces nonrelevant indications
or limits particle mobility. If the magnetizing current is excessively high when
performing a wet fluorescent particle inspection, particles can be attracted to the
surface of the part and not be allowed to migrate to the flux leakage fields of
defects. When performing a dry particle inspection, an excessive longitudinal
magnetic field will cause furring. Furring is when magnetic particles build up at
the magnetic poles of a part. When the field strength is excessive, the magnetic
field is forced out of the part before reaching the end of the component and the
poles along its length attract particles and cause high background levels.
Adequate field strength may be determined by:

● performing an inspection on a standard specimen that is similar to the test

component and has known or artificial defects of the same type, size, and
location as those expected in the test component. QQI shims can sometimes
be used as the artificial defects.
 ● using a gauss meter with a Hall effect probe to measure the peak values of
the tangent field at the surface of the part in the region of interest. Most
specifications call for a field strength of 30 to 60 gauss at the surface when
the magnetizing force is applied.
● looking for light furring at the ends of pipes or bars when performing dry
particle inspections on these and other uncomplicated shapes.
Formulas for calculating current levels should only be used to estimate current
requirements. The magnetic field strength resulting from calculations should be
assessed for adequacy using one of the two method discussed above. Likewise,
published current level information should also be used only as a guide unless
the values have been established for the specific component and target defects of
the inspection at hand.

Using a Pie Gage

A pie gage is placed copper side up and held in contact with the component as
the magnetic field and particles are applied. Indications of the leakage fields
provide a visual representation of defect direction within the component. Pie
gages work well on flat surfaces, but if the surface is concave or convex,
inaccurate readings may occur. The pie gage is a flux sharing device and
requires good contact to provide accurate readings.
Using Quantitative Quality Indicator (QQI) Shims
Quantitative Quality Indicator (QQI) flaw shims are used to establish proper
field direction and to ensure adequate field strength during technique
development. The QQI flaw shim is the most efficient means of determining
balance and effectiveness of fields. The QQI's are also flux sharing devices and
must be properly attach so as not to allow particles to become trapped under the
artificial flaw. Application using Super glue is the preferred way of attaching the
artificial flaw, but does not allow for reuse of the shims. Shims can also be
attached with tape applied to just the edge of the shim. It is recommended that
the tape be impervious to oil, not be fluorescent, and be 1/4 to 1/2 inch in
width. The QQI must be applied to locations on the component where the flux
density may vary. One example would be the center area of a yoke or Y shaped
component. Oftentimes, the flux density will be near zero in this area. If two legs
of a Y are in contact with the pad in circular magnetization, it must be
determined if current is flowing evenly through each leg. A QQI on each leg
would be appropriate under such conditions.
QQI's can be used to establish system threshold values for a defect of a given
size. By attaching a QQI shim with three circles (40%, 30% and 20% of shim
thickness) to the component, threshold values for a specific area of the
component, can be established. Begin by applying current at a low amperage and
slowly increasing it until the largest flaw is obtained. The flux density should be
verified and recorded using a Hall effects probe. The current is then increased
until the second circle is identified and the flux density is again recorded. As the
current is further increased, the third ring is identified and the current values are
recorded.

Hall Effects Gauss Meter

There are several types of Hall effects probes that can be used to measure the
magnetic field strength. Transverse probes are the type most commonly used to
evaluate the field strength in magnetic particle testing. Transverse probes have
the Hall effect element mounted in a thin, flat stem and they are used to make
measurements between two magnetic poles. Axial probes have the sensing
element mounted such that the magnetic flux in the direction of the long axis of
the probe is measured.
To make a measurement with a transverse probe, the probe is positioned such
that the flat surface of the Hall effect element is transverse to the magnetic lines
of flux. The Hall effect voltage is a function of the angle at which the magnetic
lines of flux pass through the sensing element. The greatest Hall effect voltage
occurs when the lines of flux pass perpendicularly through the sensing element.
If not perpendicular, the output voltage is related to the cosine of the difference
between 90 degrees and the actual angle. The peak field strength should be
measured when the magnetizing force is applied. The field strength should be
measured in all areas of the component to be inspected.
Infrared Thermography and Nondestructive
Evaluation
The domain of infrared thermography is recent and covers vast fields of applications. In
the industrial context, infrared thermography, or TNDE (Thermographic Non
Destructive Evaluation), is deployed either by the passive approach (by simple
observation of the isotherms on the observed surface) or by the active approach (by
stimulating the thermal response of the specimen). The interest of these thermal methods
is obvious since they allow to probe a crucial thickness of material under the surface in
order to reveal potential subsurface defects.
These research activities aim at the development of experimental methods and
processing methods allowing to take decisions at a high level for the automatic
interpretation of thermograms (thermal pictures): interpretation, temporal quantitative
analysis, development of procedures to extract specific features.
It is worthwhile to mention that in most of the cases where TNDE is deployed the
interpretation of the thermograms is still done by hand by the operator. A pressing need
exists therefore in order to go on to the following stage and achieve the symbiosis:
infrared thermography and automated vision. Classic image processing techniques (for
images of the visible spectrum) are not directly applicable because of the very different
formation process of infrared images (emitted rather than reflected radiation). It is thus
necessary to adapt existing methods and especially to innovate in order to set up general
high level decision making methods from explicit extracted data of thermograms.

More specifically, our fields of activities are:

● survey of the problems occurring in the case of non planar component inspection
by a non uniform heat flux, Infrared vision and inspection
● simulation of infrared images by massively parallel processing,
● developments of the advanced concepts of pulse phase thermography (PPT) and
its quantitative analysis,
● use of artificial intelligence concepts to solve the inverse problem,
● joint projects, such as the study of rottenness in electric power distribution poles
and ageing in concrete structures, with various institutions
● set-up of a 'universal' JAVA-based software for infrared inspection,
● quantitative restoration of infrared images,
● investigation of tomographic infrared techniques to 'slice' a sample into thickness
layers.
Some other projects are also considered, such as: the automated survey of phenomenons
which release thermal energy (industries, road traffic), the detection of cracks by
thermal lateral propagation, the application of transforms, thermal cyclic and chaotic
stimulation, the increase of diagnostic reliability by data fusion. It is also interesting to
mention the publication of the following references which are now part of the Body of
Knowledge of the American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) in infrared
thermography:

● NDE of Materials by Infrared Thermography, X. Maldague, Springer-Verlag,

London (UK), 1993. 224 p.+ 16 color.
● Infrared Methodology and Technology, X. Maldague ed., International Advances
in Non Destructive Testing (IANDT), Gordon and Breach Publ., NY, 1994. 525
p.+ 17color. This monograph groups the original contributions of sixteen authors
having a large experience in the field of infrared and coming from seven
countries: Canada, France, United States, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden.
 ● A new Handbook is under development.

We also collaborate with various international partners. For instance, a joint research
project with the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium is currently under way
(1997-1999 period).
The team activities include also some aspects of automated inspection (visible
spectrum). These activities are in close collaboration with the industry. Currently, the
following projects are ongoing:

● automated decrypting of standard forms. Partner: CARDI Inc.

● automatic presence and position assessment of pins. Partner: MENDES Inc.
● fingerprint acquisition.

These aspects of automated inspection are very important for the involved partners.
Indeed, the automated inspection allows to optimize production while reducing costs.
All these activities allow to apply and develop, in a convenient and also useful way,
some fundamental concepts of computer vision.
Contact vs. Noncontact Measurement
Define Your Needs First
Understanding the target is as important as hitting it. Your operation’s requirements on
accuracy, speed and price will work as opposing forces in the decision-making process.
In the early days of personal computing, there was a popular phrase: “Better, faster,
cheaper; choose any two.” In CAI this factor still remains: Fast scanners will not be as
accurate, more accurate scanners will cost more money.

Accuracy of Scanning
Establish what is the tightest accuracy required by the design specifications and work to
them. Further establish if future products might have tighter restrictions on accuracy or
if it will remain consistent—same production methods, similar product and materials,
similar assemblies—in the known future. Tolerances are a key part to this discussion.
Not all tolerances are created equally and some may be extremely rigid versus others
where more flexibility is acceptable. That will need to be defined by engineering and
needs to be commensurate with known process capabilities for the operation.
Sometimes design engineers can add in particularly tight tolerances and accuracy
requirements that are simply not practical in the production world. An accuracy of 5
microns is not needed if the production process being used will only be accurate to plus
or minus 0.5 millimeter. It is important to clearly identify which tolerances are
arbitrarily tight and which accuracy requirements are practical.

Speed of Measurement
Fast measurements are not usually highly accurate measurements, and that holds true for
contact and noncontact methods for inspection. Fast measurement is typically required if
you have a scenario for in-line measurement, and then has to be balanced by the
tolerance requirements in place. Sampling parts is a viable alternative to faster
measurement, which can buy the time required to ensure that measurements are being
adequately checked; i.e. if you measure one part in every 10, then you have gained 10x
the time required to check the production quality.
Price

Greater accuracy and greater speed will result in a higher cost of the equipment
required. Conversely, if you want to reduce the cost, you will forfeit either speed, or
accuracy, or both. This means that you will need to choose up to two out of the three
available factors: accuracy, speed or cost.

Identify Your Budget

A contact device can be as cheap as $8,000 while industrial CT scanners will set you
back a cool $150,000 to $500,000. Other technologies fall in between those two
extremes, and be aware, even while measurement technology has dropped in price
while gaining in accuracy and speed, metrology equipment can still cost some serious
cash. Add into that equation the cost of inspection software, training and maintenance
and you could be on the way to blowing through budgets.

But setting the expected return on investment (ROI) is also useful here. Measuring the
price of quality is not always easy but the cost of bad quality can become alarmingly
clear very quickly. Schneider Electric, an electrical product manufacturer that invested
in an industrial CT scanner last year, managed to identify and solve a quality problem
on a production line in one hour, using the CT scanner and inspection software. Prior to
that investment, the problem encountered would have required at least 21 days of
downtime at easily a cost of about $480,000—a single example of how the company
easily achieved return on investment.
Contact Solutions
Contact solutions are a more traditional and widely accepted technology, and come in
two main varieties: stationary CMMs and portable CMMs.

Stationary CMMs
Stationary coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) are typically very large
installations—gantry, bridge and horizontal systems—that are highly accurate,
expensive and much slower compared to other methods. These CMMs have zero
portability and the part being measured has to be ported to the CMM itself, not vice
versa.

Portable CMMs
Portable CMMs (PCMMs), which typically are stationed on an arm or are observed by
a tracking device, are, as the name implies, highly portable and can be moved to a part
rather than the other way around as with stationary CMMs. They are manually operated,
and lower accuracy than stationary CMMs, but also come at a much reduced cost. Use
of portable CMMs requires a lot less training, can be used on very large parts without
requiring complex set up, and it is easy to add additional portable CMMs to increase
throughput.

Drawbacks with Contact Measurement

Stationary CMMs have the disadvantage of being fixed in one place, being very slow
and quite costly. But otherwise, the advantage of accuracy always needs to be
considered. Probe compensation is the one that needs to be mostly considered. The
probe is set to assume that the first part being measured is perfect, which it is not, and
all compensation is based on that assumption. The measurements are offset from the
center of the probe, based on the initial assumption of perfection. The more complex the
part, the more those assumptions will come into play. While this can be managed, the
assumptions have to be realistic. The most accurate probe based device may still give
ambiguous results on a complex form.
Secondly, data capture is slow. Capturing 100 points can take ten minutes, but those tend
to be some very valuable points.

Noncontact Solutions
The noncontact solutions are a relatively new approach in a time-honored discipline.
They range across laser scanners, structured light scanners and industrial CT scanners.
All of them capture the “shape” of the part so that measurements can be made and
analyzed using inspection software. The advantages of noncontact scanners over
contact devices include fast data collection, and more comprehensive collection of
points means a clearer view of the entire part. They are (except for CT scanners) highly
portable and flexible to use, with no or very few compensations for the data being
collected.

Laser Scanners
Laser scanners use laser light to create the 3-D shape of the part as a point cloud. They
tend to be very flexible—you can mount them to CMMs and PCMMs—and can be hand-
held or mounted on tripods. Prices range from the low thousands to above $100,000,
again with the advantage being greater accuracy at higher prices. Even then, laser light
causes inherent measurement noise and diffusion from the laser light limits the
resolution possible, and laser based systems typically have difficulties measuring highly
reflective surfaces. Camera resolution is always better than laser coherence. Your use
of these scanners should be made based on the available resolution of a scanner
compared to your tolerance requirements on the shop floor.
Structured Light Scanners

A structured light scanner uses projected light patterns and a camera system to record
the deviations of the light to record the 3-D shape of the part. Available in multiple
shades of light, these scanners are usually more accurate than laser scanners, due to a
markedly lower measurement noise. In addition, they can deal with shiny parts. The
combined light and camera technology delivers much greater accuracy and also means
much heavier datasets to deal with. They are also less flexible, needing to be mounted
and calibrated on tripods or robots.
Industrial CT Scanners
CT scanners have the advantage of being able to capture both internal and external
geometry, even to the point of being able to see and identify cracks and fissures in a
material almost down to the atomic level if you have the right system. This kind of
accuracy demands much higher prices, and CT scanners are far less mobile—you bring
the part to the scanner unit. CT scanners also have limitations on what materials can be
scanned so that needs to be carefully checked against requirements.

Automation Using Noncontact Devices

Noncontact systems in particular can be easily automated for constantly repetitive
measurement procedures. With the right software, the measurement analysis can also be
easily automated so that go/no-go reports can be quickly created to help identify a
problem almost as soon as it begins.

Software for Inspection

There are several inspection software products on the market, all of which have their
own advantages and disadvantages. Inspection software bridges the gap between the
point collection and the design requirements. Obviously, not all software is the same,
and you need to be on the lookout for the ease-of-use versus training requirements. You
also need to choose your software based on the capture device(s) you are using. Always
require a test run of the software using one of your typical production parts, and if you
have budget available go for a full pilot test of the complete system. This will allow
you to make considered and well-researched decisions. Consider how you want to be
given results of the measurements, as reporting types can vary across software products.

Contact-centric software
This software is targeted primarily at contact-based measurement: it typically cannot
handle large datasets provided by noncontact scanning as well as products developed
for the noncontact solutions. If you are certain you will only be using contact
measurement, look to FARO CAM2, Hexagon PC-DMIS, Verisurf, BuildIt!, and Delcam
PowerInspect, among others.
Noncontact Software
Inspection software for noncontact measurement is a wholly different experience from
the traditional methods, and is aimed at the new generation of measurement. Consider if
you have reference data available—normally a CAD file—for comparison purposes,
which is the best solution, even though most of the products available also work without
CAD reference data. Define if you might need automation, and also be on the lookout
for software that has been certified by NIST for accuracy. Products include Geomagic
Qualify, Rapidform XOV, Innovmetric Polyworks, and GOM Inspect.

Reporting Tools
Once you calculate results, you are going to need to share them with someone—or many
people. Define how those results should be shared—in a 3-D PDF, by 2-D spreadsheet,
etc. As a further detail, define what data is needed in the reports by management, so that
the information is available to those who need it. Then make sure that the software
meets those requirements.

The right choices of capture device and software can mean the difference between a
production line being closed for weeks—or hours. The increase in quality is less easily
measured but can be significant and not recognized until those product recalls cease to
be an issue. Choose carefully, and if necessary get an expert in to help.
INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY AS A NON-
DESTRUCTIVE TOOL
Introduction
Infrared thermography for non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT & E) aims at the
detection of subsurface features (i.e. subsurface defects, anomalies, etc.), owing to
temperature differences (DT) observed on the investigated surface during monitoring by
an infrared camera. At temperatures above absolute zero all bodies emit
electromagnetic radiation. Infrared thermography or thermal imaging is a measurement
technique based on the detection of radiation in the infrared spectrum (usually in the 2-
5.6 mm and 8-14 mm regions). These two spectral bands are commonly used because of
their low atmosphere absorption.

The principal problem where infrared measurements are concerned is the emissivity[1],
emittance of the material(s). Provided that an infrared camera detects and records the
radiation emitted by a material under investigation and renders this energy to a
temperature - thermal image, the characteristic that describes the relation between the
emitted radiation and the material's temperature, is termed as emissivity. Emissivity is
actually a surface property that states the ability of the investigated material to emit
energy. Values for emissivity (e) can be between 0 (perfect reflector - mirror) and 1
(perfect emmiter - blackbody). As a result, emissivity plays an essential role in infrared
thermographic surveys and is dependent on temperature, wavelength and surface
condition. A surface with a low emissivity value ([Link], steel, etc.) acts as a
mirror (high reflectance). However, such problem is usually overcome using high
emittance flat paints (i.e. black colour water based paints) for painting the investigated
surface(s).

Approaches

Infrared thermography is deployed by two approaches; passive and active. With the
passive approach thermography is used to investigate materials that are at different
temperature than ambient (often higher), whilst in the case of the active approach an
external stimulus source (i.e. optical flash lamps, heat lamps, hot or cold air guns, etc.)
is used in order to induce relevant thermal contrasts. The most regular applications of
the passive approach in NDT & E are for buildings and infrastructures, maintenance,
components and processes, and medicine. In most situations, passive thermography is
used for qualitative assessment (although this is not always the case), given that the
objective is to detect irregularities of the kind function or malfunction.

Figure 1: Transient thermal NDT approaches

The active approach has also several applications in NDT & E. The temperature
differences during the transient phase appear on the material surface and so detection of
subsurface defects is possible (areas of different temperatures when compared to the
sound part(s) due to the different thermal diffusivity). Since the heating or cooling
features of the stimulus source are identifiable by considering the time factor
quantitative assessment is also feasible. The most common modes of active
thermography are pulsed thermography, long pulsed heating or step heating transient
thermography, optical lock-in thermography, and ultrasound lock-in thermography.

Advantages - limitations
The main advantage of infrared thermography over the destructive testing techniques is
that large areas can be scanned fast and with no need to be destroyed during testing.
This results in major savings in time, people, work and machinery. In addition, there are
advantages of infrared thermography over the other non-destructive techniques. The
infrared thermographic device is risk-free, as it does not emit any radiation; it only
records the infrared radiation emitted from the material that is under assessment.
Moreover, infrared thermography is an area investigating technique, whereas most of
the other non-destructive methods are either point or line testing methods. Furthermore,
infrared thermographic testing may be performed during both day - and night - time
hours.

Thermography, due to the fact that it uses infrared technology it is not possible to
penetrate in extended depths (only a few mm's). That of course is one of the main
limitations of the technique. Finally, environmental conditions also play an important
role on outdoor infrared thermographic surveys utilising the passive approach (i.e.
cloud cover, solar radiation, wind speed).

Assessment of defects under composite patching

A composite repair patch was investigated both experimentally and by modelling, with
the intention of assessing an artificially introduced delamination (Teflon). The patch
was a 6-ply boron epoxy composite material that was applied on an Al 2024-T3
surface. The dimensions of the Teflon were 25 mm x 25 mm and it was positioned
between the 3rd and 4th ply of the composite patch (120 mm long x 70 mm wide). The
thickness of each ply was 125µmm.

Experimentally the panel was investigated using a portable state-of-the-art

thermographic system (Thermoscope) with an integrated flash heating system (duration
of flash heating time 3.1 ms) employing a medium-wave infrared camera (Merlin 3-
5µmm by Indigo). The infrared camera uses a cooled indium antimonide detector with a
frame rate of 60 Hz, a focal plane array pixel format of 320 (H) x 256 (V) and an
optical lens of 13 mm focal length.
For the purposes of thermal modelling, the ThermoCalc-3D software was employed. It
is based on solving a heat conduction problem by means of an implicit finite-element
numerical scheme. The software was used in order to calculate the three-dimensional
(3D) temperature distributions of the various layers of the panel and provide
information about the delamination in space and in time. The specimen was heated
uniformly, whilst the thermo-physical properties and heating time parameters shown in
Table 1were used for the modelling.

Table 1: Parameters used during modelling

In Figure 2, a thermogram with representative line profiles from the investigated panel
are presented. The delamination was detected by thermography. Line profiles (on both
axes) at various times from the obtained thermal images were plotted in order to obtain
information about the size of the delamination in relation to the thermal transient time
(e.g. possible shrinkage due to thermal diffusion). From the line profiles it was possible
to calculate the size of the delamination employing the Full Width Half Maximum
(FWHM) approach.

Figure 2: Thermogram and representative line profiles of the investigated

composite panel
Thermal images, spatial profiles and thermal contrast curves of the panel from the
thermal modelling run are presented in Figure 3. The results give a good indication of
how the composite material responds to thermal heating. It shows the behaviour of a
delaminated composite material after it was heated with a thermal excitation source
uniformly in order to detect a sub-surface defect by means of pulsed thermography.

Figure 3: Thermal modelling results of composite panel. Upper graph shows

development of contrast, Delta T, over defect with time. A thermal image and
spatial profiles in both axes (X and Y) are also shown.

Therefore, from the obtained results it is shown that experimentally or by the use of
thermal modelling it is possible to evaluate (qualitatively and quantitatively) near
surface delaminations in composites.

Quality assurance and structural evaluation of GRP pipes.

The Thermoscope system with the Merlin infrared camera was again utilised for the
experimental treatments within this research work. A total of three samples -
components were manufactured and examined using the thermography kit; in some
instances due to the complexity of the investigated samples, external thermal excitation
sources (i.e. hot air of 1200 Watts or optical lamp of 500 Watts) were also employed as
alternative solution of active thermographic investigation. Furthermore, pulsed
thermography (PT) and pulsed phase thermography (PPT) were used for evaluation of
the components[2]. In the case of PPT either a Santa Barbara Focal Plane SBF125camera
(14 bits, InSb 320x256 FPA, 3-5µm, nitrogen-cooled) or a ThermaCAMTM Phoenix®
from FLIR Systems (14 bits, InSb 640x512 FPA, 3-5µm, Stirling closed cycle cooler).
Two high power flashes (Balcar FX 60), providing 6.4 KJ for 2-10ms each, were used
as heating sources. Thermographic data was analyzed with a PC (Pentium 4, 2 GB
RAM) using MATLAB® language from The MathWorks, Inc.

Representative thermal images of the investigated samples were obtained during the
transient phase of the thermographic inspections and are presented. In some instances,
plots of the contrast versus the transient time of the identified defects were performed;
the difference in intensity (D Intensity) between the detected defect and the sound region
of the sample against the transient time during the cooling down process was plotted.

Although the best possible results concerning the size of a detected defect were attained
at particularly short transient times, the highest contrast images were acquired at
relatively longer times.

Figure 4: Thermal image of investigated pipe after 0.935 seconds of heating

 Figure 5: Thermal image of investigated pipe after 13.560 seconds of heating
revealing kissing bond defect on the pipe

Figure 6: Defect 'A': (a) gray (top) and 'jet' (bottom) raw thermograms at t=0.92
s; (b) first time derivative image (from a 7th degree polynomial fitting) at t=2.85 s;
(c) second derivative at t=1.49 s.
 Figure 7: Defect 'B' second derivative images (from a 7th degree polynomial
fitting) at t=(a) 1.26 s; (b) 3.19 s; (c) 7.51 s.

Figure 8: Defect 'C'. (a) raw themogram at t=1.26 s; (b) second derivative image
(from a 7th degree polynomial fitting) 2.17 s.

Since the thermal conductivity of all these three inspected samples is relatively low, the
samples were tested using a reasonably low maximum frame rate. A frame rate of 15 Hz
was used; with the exception of the pipe that presented impact damage, where a higher
frame rate (60 Hz) was needed. Furthermore, in order to avoid the high reflectance of
the pipes during investigation and so record thermal images, the samples were either
painted with black colour water based paint or even polished by applying a silver
polishing substance (i.e. silvo).
Figure 9: Thermal image of investigated impact damaged area after 0.017 seconds
of heating

Impact damage on CFRP panels and honeycomb sandwich structures

Damage caused by low velocity impacts is a particular concern in the aircraft industry.
In this work, impact damaged CFRP panels (150 x 100mm) of 2mm thickness (16 ply
with a quasi-isotropic lay-up), as well as sandwich composite samples formed after
bonded to the two faces of 25 mm thick Type 6 Nomax honeycomb core were
investigated. All panels were cut from the same sheet. A falling weight impactor with a
hemispherical 12.5 mm radius head was used to apply impacts of controlled energy.
During impact, the samples were supported around their edges over a 125 x 75 mm
aperture, allowing the bulk of the panels to rebound freely on impact. The Thermoscope
pulsed transient thermographic system, employing the medium wave infrared camera
(Merlin 3-5µm by Indigo), was used to image the impact damage.

PT is a rapid large area technique with the additional advantages of being single-sided
and non-contact. These attributes make this technique particularly suitable for surveying
either single panel or sandwich structures for impact damage. Examples of
thermography images impact damage in the two types of samples are shown in figure
10. In addition to the evident difference in defect size, the sandwich sample image
contains a high contrast component caused by a delamination close to the surface. A
comparison of contrast vs. elapsed time for the two images shows contrast peaking at a
much earlier time for the sandwich sample, consistent with delaminations close to the
surface. The size and the through thickness characteristics of the impact damage
produced in single panel and sandwich samples are reflected in the NDT images
obtained by PT. The technique has been shown to be effective for detecting and imaging
impact damage in either isolated panel or sandwich samples.

Figure 10: Thermal images of 12.75J impact damage in a panel sample (left) & in a
sandwich sample (right) taken 0.5s after flash heating.

Conclusions

Transient - active thermography has emerged in recent years as a means of NDT & E
technique. Its advantages are that it is a rapid large area non-contact imaging technique
that produces images of subsurface features (i.e. defects) that are relatively
straightforward to interpret. In this work, thermography trials took place on different
components - applications. In some instances, the technique provided prompt results.
Nonetheless, thermography is an inherently near surface technique whose effectiveness
will decrease with the material's thickness[3]. It also depends on the thermal properties
of the material (different behaviour between high thermal conductive materials such as
metals and lower thermal conductive materials such as composites).
History of NDT-Instrumentation
For more than 50 years I am personally closely connected with Nondestructive Testing
(NDT). During this period after World War II the emerging modern industry needed
more and more testing equipment for the production of flawless components. Therefore,
instruments for NDT were developed, produced in quantities and continuously
improved. I met most of those persons working in this modern industrial field not only
in Germany but also in other parts of the world. And I did not meet them only: I
discussed, argued, cooperated and fought with many of them. Therefore I was asked by
my students, collaborators, colleagues and friends to write down what I still remember.
I am aware of the fact that such a task can never be completed. Therefore I apologize to
all those for excuse who are not mentioned or have quite different memories. In addition
I want to point out that I name only those companies which have an considerable export
and are not only working in one or few countries. The first NDT-method coming into
industrial application was the X-Ray Technique

X-Ray Technique
Already 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered "An Unknown Kind of Radiation"
which were named in all German speaking countries after him. In his first publication he
described all effects including possible flaw detection. At that time industry did not yet
need this invention but medicine did. So medical equipment was developed, used and
produced in quantities. The only effect Röntgen could not foresee was that X-rays harm
human health. Before radiation protection became introduced, many persons lost their
life.
Early technical X-ray applications in Germany were realized by Richard Seifert around
1930. He improved medical equipment, cooperated with welding-institutes and built up
the small company founded by his father to a world-wide respected name: Richard
Seifert Hamburg 13. He got competition by Siemens and C.H.F. Müller, part of the
Philips-organisation, who already worked in the medical field. Seifert died in 1969, but
his company kept leadership in technical X-ray-application under the direction of his
youngest daughter Elisabeth Samusch.
Radiation testing can also be carried out with radioactive isotopes. This was
discovered by Mme. Curie. She, born as Maria Sklodowska in Warscaw received the
Nobel-prize for physics in 1903 together with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri
Becquerel. This was the second award after Röntgen's in 1901. Also radioactive
isotopes were initially used for medical applications. In Germany Rudolf Berthold and
Otto Vaupel applied them after 1933 to welded joints.

Magnetic particle crack detection

Magnetic particle crack detection was executed even earlier than X-ray testing. The
Englishman S.M. Saxby already in 1868 and the American William Hoke in 1917 tried
to find cracks in gun barrels by magnetic indications. Real industrial application was
made by Victor de Forest and Foster Doane after 1929. They formed 1934 a company
with the name Magnaflux in 1934, famous world-wide until today. The first European
who built a magnetic particle crack detector was an Italian in 1932: Giraudi. His
machine was named "Metalloscopio".
In Germany Berthold and Vaupel applied MP-technique to welded constructions. Their
equipment was produced by Ernst Heubach. Bruno Suschyzki sold this equipment. He
invented swinging field MP-testing. In Berlin too E.A.W. Müller designed MP-
testing machines for Siemens. In Prague the Seifert-representative Karasek began with
similar production.

After World War II Wilhelm Tiede, a former Seifert-employee, started his own company
in Southern Germany. Through the Seifert-organisation he had connections to Karasek
who emigrated to Brazil in 1948 after the communistic revolution in Cechoslovakia.
There he continued production of MP-machines. Starting with dry-powder methods two
more companies entered this market in the late Fifties: Karl Deutsch in Germany and
CGM (Carlo Gianni Milano) in Italy.

Penetrant Testing
Penetrant Testing started also in second half of 19th century. The first people who
applied the "Oil and Whiting"-process for crack detection to railway-components are
unknown. The method was replaced by the upcoming MP-technique. Just before and
during World War II the fast growing aircraft-industry used more and more nonmagnetic
light metals, which could not be tested with MP. So independent of each other
Magnaflux together with the brothers Switzer in USA, Brent Chemicals in GB, Adler
(Blohm & Voss) and Klumpf (Junkers) in Germany started production of fluorescent and
dye penetrants.
Eddy Current Testing
Eddy Current Testing has old roots as well. The French Dominique Arago discovered
the phenomenon during the first half of 19th century. The principle was explained by and
named after Leon Foucault. Many proposals for application were made until Friedrich
Förster brought this method to industrial use. He worked since 1933 for the Kaiser-
Wilhelm-Institute and there he developed instruments for measuring conductivity and to
sort out mixed-up ferrous components. In 1948 he founded his own company in
Reutlingen which grew up with eddy current testing (ET). Institut Dr. Förster became
market-leader worldwide for many decades. In Sweden Anders Arnelo started similar
developments at Svenska Metalverken (SM). He solved the problem to test hot wires
and invented the pre-magnetization for ET of ferritic bars.
Ultrasonic Testing
came latest into industrial use. The methods of exciting ultrasound were discovered
already in 1847 by James Precott Joule and in 1880 by Pierre Curie and his brother
Paul Jacques. Not earlier than 1912 a first application was proposed after the "Titanic"
had sunk. The Englishman Richardson claimed the identification of icebergs by
ultrasound in his patent applications. In France Chilowski and Langevin started their
development to detect submarines by ultrasound during World War I. In 1929 the
Russian Sokolov proposed to use ultrasound for testing castings. In Berlin Pohlman
realized in 1937 an image-cell to indicate the differences of ultrasound-energy similar
to a X-ray image-screen.
The detection of laminations in plates and fine non-metallic inclusions in hot-rolled
profiles became necessary during World War II. The already existing NDT-methods - X-
rays, MP, PT and ET - were unable to solve these problems. Industrial use of ultrasonic
testing started simultaniously in three countries: USA, GB and Germany. The key-
persons, Floyd Firestone, Donald O. Sproule and Adolf Trost had no knowledge of each
other as they worked strictly in secret. Not even their patent-applications were
published. Sproule and Trost used transmission-technique with seperate transmitter- and
receiver-probes. Trost invented the so-called "Trost-Tonge". The 2 probes were
contacted on opposite sides of a plate, held in same axis by a mechanical device - the
tonge - and coupled to both surfaces by continuously flowing water. Sproule placed the
2 probes on the same side of the workpiece. So he invented double-crystal probes. But
it has to be mentioned that he used this combination also with variing distance from
each other. Firestone was the first to realize the reflection-technique. He modified a
radar instrument and developed a transmitter with short pulses and an amplifier with
short dead-zone.
Sproule and Firestone found industrial partners for their instruments: Kelvin-Hughes
and Sperry Inc. In Germany 1949 two persons received information about the Firestone-
Sperry-Reflectoscope by publications in technical papers: Josef Krautkrämer in
Cologne and Karl Deutsch in Wuppertal. Both started developments - without
knowledge of each other. Josef Krautkrämer and his brother Herbert were physicists,
working in the field of oscilloscopes. They could develop ultrasonic instruments alone.
Karl Deutsch, a mechanical engineer needed a partner for the electronics and found him
with Hans-Werner Branscheid who had got some technical experience in radar-
technique during the war. Within only one year both young and tiny companies could
present their UT-flaw-detectors, starting a competition still existing today.

Later on more UT-units came on the international markets: Siemens and Lehfeldt in
Germany, Kretztechnik in Austria, Ultrasonique in France and Ultrasonoscope in
Britain. They all stopped their production before the 70-ies, Kelvin-Hughes also
stopped at the same time, Sperry was later renamed Automation Ind., around 1995.
Krautkrämer became world-wide market-leader in the early 60-ies and has kept this
position until today. Besides Karl Deutsch new names came up: Nukem in Germany,
Panametrics and Stavely (after Sonic and Harisonic) in USA, Sonatest and Sonomatic in
GB, Gilardoni in Italy and Mitsubishi in Japan. Today more than 50 companies are
active in industrial NDT. They are still working under strong competition to the benefit
of their customers on their way to improve the quality of industrially produced parts.
A Smart Eddy Current Sensor Dedicated to the
Nondestructive Evaluation
Non-destructive testing (NDT) is one of the most common and powerful techniques
employed in the inspection of materials during their manufacture or use. When dealing
with an electrically conductive body, eddy current non-destructive testing (EC-NDT) is
the most efficient way to test the state of health of materials (low cost, readily
implemented...). The efficiency of EC-NDT depends directly on the performance of the
sensor used. During the last few years, researchers have focused their work to a new
generation of EC probes consisting of miniaturized sensors forming a rectangular sensor
array that could detect defects with high accuracy, even in complex materials such as
carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP), the material studied as an application in this
article. Nevertheless, the highly anisotropic and complex structure of CFRP may
require, depending on the type of control to be performed, specific EC sensor
configurations. For the detection of defects or the fibers’ orientation, actual solutions
are based on high frequency sensors , rotating sensors or rectangular sensors These
types of sensors are used to draw a polar diagram giving the intensity of the measured
signal in terms of the rotation angle of the sensor. The angles of the obtained lobes
determine the different fibers orientations whereas their amplitude indicates the position
of the ply in the sample.

In this work, a new multi-element sensor array design is suggested with the aim of
evaluating CFRP materials. This multi-element sensor is presented as an alternative to
the rotating and the rectangular sensors in order to increase the sensitivity and
resolution and to reduce the mechanical effort for rotation.

Conception
The proposed sensor consists of flat triangular coils combined into an array. Figure 1
displays the design of the sensor’s elements as well as the simplified geometry
introduced as input to the computational code for simulation.

(Left) Design of a single element and (Right) the simplified array configuration.

The triangular form allows a higher flexibility on the desired shapes of the generated
electromagnetic (EM) field. The elements are arranged that they can give a large
number of possible EM configurations, thereby, avoid the mechanical swiveling of the
sensor occurring in conventional characterization. In addition to this, such a structure
can cover a relatively wide inspection area which saves the number of manual scanning
operations. The size of the sensor elements can be selected to optimize precision in the
defect detection.
The basic idea rests on the fact that the EM fields generated by two parallel wires
traversed by currents with the same amplitude and in opposite direction cancel each
other. This property is exploited to generate different field forms, acting only on the
excitation currents’ distribution. Thereby, Figure 2 represents four triangular coils
excited in a way that the resulting field is similar to that obtained by a square coil: the
fields generated by currents flowing in the “diagonal” conductors oppose and cancel
each other. Then, the resulting field is practically that due to the currents flowing in the
“external quadrature” conductors.

Figure 2

Top view of the current flow upon jointly exciting the four coils (left) and perspective
view of the three-dimensional distribution of the magnetic potential vector for the four
coils (right).

Sensor Characteristics
Geometrical Characterization
The proposed sensor is an array assembly of 36 identical coils in the shape of isosceles
triangles whose angles at the base worth 45°. In each coil, the developed length or the
total length of the wire ltotal and the total effective surface Stotal are given by the
Equations (1) and (2) respectively (see Appendix A):
where D is the external rib of the coil (see Figure 1), lp is the line width, Ep is the inter-
lines distance and nis the number of turns. These geometrical parameters are
indispensable to calculate the electrical parameters as their influence is direct.

Electrical Characterization
The theoretical model of a coil is given in Figure 3 [6]. To determine the coil
inductance L, and for the sake of accuracy, an evaluation of the stored magnetic energy
(Equation (5)) was provided via the FE model developed in Section 4. However, to
determine the resistance R and the capacitance C, basic models have been adopted to
simplify the calculation. The relations through which the electrical parameters have
been estimated are given below:

where hp is the height of the line, ρ is its electrical resistivity of the wire, ε is the electric permittivity, ω is the

angular frequency, Ω is the whole computation area (sensor and air box), μ is the magnetic permeability and B is

the magnetic flux density.

Figure 3

Electrical model of a coil.

Physical Characterization
Knowledge of its geometrical and electrical characteristics is necessary but insufficient
to fully qualify the electromagnetic behaviour of a coil. As an EM sensor, the coil needs
to meet other requirements depending on the intended mode of its use. As an emitter, its
emissive ability must be calculated. If it’s used as receiver, it is necessary to determine
its sensitivity and its electrical noise signal. In the proposed sensor, coils have the
versatility to work in emission and reception simultaneously or separately, which
implies a complete and rigorous study of the sensitive element. Ravat, C. [6] exposes in
his work these parameters as follows:
Optimization of the Coil

The relationship between the geometrical, electrical and physical characteristics developed previously allows us to

study the influence of each parameter and thus to determine the optimum dimensions of the coil appropriate for a

desired application. Table 1 provides the characteristics of the selected coil to non-destructively evaluate a CFRP.

According to the theoretical model (Figure 3), Figure 4 shows the frequency response of a triangular coil using data

given in Table 1. It can be seen that the coil can be used as EM field sensor above 800 kHz where it shows a strong

inductive behavior with a phase greater than 60°. The cut-off frequency is much higher than 100 MHz.
Figure 4

Frequency response of the sensor.

Modeling
After the construction of the geometry and the mesh generation using the open-source
software GMSH, the problem data are sent to our 3D finite element solver in which was
implemented the magneto-dynamics formulation AV-A (Equation (9)); mathematical
model chosen to describe the EM behaviour of our problem. The calculations are
carried out in the harmonic regime. A penalty term is introduced to ensure the
uniqueness of the solution [7]:
where σ// is the electrical conductivity in the fibers direction, σ ⊥ is the conductivity in
the transverse direction of the fibers and σzz is the conductivity in the direction of the
plies stacking.

Results
The EC-NDT concept is based on the distribution and circulation of the induced
currents in the component being inspected. This distribution is strongly linked to the
profile of the excitation EM field. With this in mind, numerical experiments were
carried out to discern the ability of our sensor to emulate the EM field configurations
obtained by conventional sensors such as a rectangular coil.

Sensor and EM Field

Figure 5 shows that the electromagnetic field generated by a set of triangular elements excited simultaneously is

similar to the EM field created by a conventional rectangular coil. The electric field calculated at the front surface of

the load illustrated in Figure 6 confirms this equivalence of the global EM behaviour for the two systems. Nevertheless,

we note some electric field irregularities in the case of the multi-element sensor, which is due to the discontinuities in

the geometry of the inductor and to the current singularities in the bends of triangles.
Figure 5

Magnetic vector potential calculated for a system of: (a) rectangular coil; (b) proposed multi-element sensor.

Figure 6

Electric field magnitude at the front surface of the load (z = 0): (a) rectangular coil; (b)
multi-element sensor.
The interaction between the excited elements and those “at rest” was studied too with the aim of evaluating the

coupling effect. The obtained results displayed in Figure 7 show that the non-excited adjacent elements are without a

slightest action on the configuration of the field or on its amplitude at the operating frequency of 1 MHz.

Figure 7

Electric field magnitude at the front surface of the load (z = 0): (I) without regard to
non-excited elements (σ = 0); (II) non-excited elements are physically represented (σ =
30, 6 × 106 S/m).

In addition to the foregoing, the proposed sensor allows a high flexibility in terms of
modes of excitation and measurement. The figure below illustrates different field
configurations obtained for different excitations. It can be seen in Figure 8 that the
sensor can substitute rectangular coil oriented at 0°, 45°, 90° and −45° without
recurring to mechanical rotation. This property will be exploited and applied to a
laminate of CFRP.
Figure 8

Field configurations generated by the multi-element sensor equivalent to a rectangular

coil oriented at 0°, 45°, 90° and −45°.

Application to CFRP
The modeled system is a stack of four plies oriented at [0°, 45°, 90°, −45°]. The physical and geometrical

characteristics are given by Table 2. Figure 9 illustrates the distribution of eddy currents produced by a rectangular

inductor oriented at 0° and its equivalent generated by the multi-element sensor. It is noted that the distributions of

eddy currents generated by the two systems, in each ply of the laminate, is typically identical. This leads to expect,

consequently, an analogue dissipated power, hence an identical response in terms of impedance.

Figure 9

Eddy current distribution in different plies of laminate (0°, 45°, 90°, −45°); at the right
caused by the multi-element sensor and at left by a rectangular coil (3.2 mm × 1 mm).

Furthermore, the results presented in Figure 10 prove that the proposed sensor can detect the orientation of the plies

and their order of stacking. The comparison between the amplitudes of peaks shows that they are decreasing

according to the stacking order of the plies. However, our values do not coincide with those calculated by [3] due to

the mismatch of the two systems (number of turns and dimensions of coils). We note also that there is no large
difference between the peaks at 45° and 90°; this can be explained by the change of sizes (length to width ratio) of the

equivalent rectangular coil generated at 45° and 90° (see Figure 8).

Figure 10

The normalized resistance of the coil as function of its rotation angle above a laminate
of four plies [0°, 45°, 90°, −45°].

Conclusions
A new design of an eddy current multi-element sensor is proposed. The EM field
computation results reveal that this sensor is able to control the EM field shape and
generate the plurality of configurations often needed in EC–NDT of carbon fiber-
reinforced polymers. The application of the proposed sensor on a sample of CFRP
shows its capability to detect the plies’ orientations and their stacking order by acting
only on the excitation currents. This sensor can thus be an alternative to the mechanical
rotating sensors and the rectangular sensors.

Ultrasonic Transducers for Nondestructive

Testing
The high-frequency sound waves used for flaw detection and thickness gaging in
ultrasonic nondestructive testing applications are generated and received by small
probes called ultrasonic transducers. Transducers are the starting point for any
ultrasonic test setup, and they come in a wide variety of frequencies, sizes, and case
styles to meet inspection needs ranging from flaw detection in enormous multi-ton steel
forgings to thickness measurement of paper-thin coatings.

A transducer is generally defined as any device that converts one form of energy into
another. The subject of this paper is the ultrasonic transducers used for thickness gaging
and conventional flaw detection. Phased array probes that utilize multiple elements to
generate steered sound beams are described in detail in our Inside a Phased Array
Transducer tutorial.
In ultrasonic NDT, transducers convert a pulse of electrical energy from the test
instrument into mechanical energy in the form of sound waves that travel through the test
piece. Sound waves reflecting from the test piece are, in turn, converted by the
transducer into a pulse of electrical energy that can be processed and displayed by the
test instrument. In effect, the transducer acts as an ultrasonic speaker and microphone,
generating and receiving pulses of sound waves at frequencies much higher than the
range of human hearing.
Typically, the active element of an NDT transducer is a thin disk, square, or rectangle of
piezoelectric ceramic or composite that converts electrical energy into mechanical
energy, and vice versa. This element is sometimes informally called the crystal because,
in the early days of ultrasonic NDT, elements were made from quartz crystals; however,
ceramics such as lead metaniobate and lead zirconium titanate have long been used in
most transducers. Recent years have seen increasing use of composite elements in
which the traditional solid ceramic disk or plate is replaced by a micro-machined
element in which tiny cylinders of piezoelectric ceramic are embedded in an epoxy
matrix. Composite elements can provide increased bandwidth and improved sensitivity
in many flaw detection applications.

Figure 1. Typical single element and dual element transducer construction.

When it is excited by an electrical pulse, this piezoelectric element generates sound
waves, and when it is vibrated by returning echoesit generates a voltage. The active
element is protected from damage by a wearplate or acoustic lens and backed by a
block of damping material that quiets the transducer after the sound pulse has been
generated. This ultrasonic subassembly is mounted in a case with appropriate electrical
connections. All common contact, angle beam, delay line, and immersion transducers
utilize this basic design. The phased array probes used in imaging applications simply
combine a number of individual transducer elements in a single assembly. Dual element
transducers, commonly used in corrosion survey applications, differ in that they have
separate transmitting and receiving elements separated by a sound barrier, no backing,
and an integral delay line to steer and couple the sound energy rather than a wearplate
or lens. Figure 1 illustrates typical transducer construction.
While the basic concept is simple, transducers are precision devices that require great
care in design, material selection, and manufacturing to help ensure optimum and
consistent performance. The transducers commonly used in conventional ultrasonic
NDT fall into five general categories based on their design and intended use.

Contact transducers
As the name implies, contact transducers are used in direct contact with the test piece.
A thin, hard wearplate cut to a thickness of one-quarter the wavelength protects the
active element from damage in normal use. Contact transducers (Figure 2) are
commonly used in flaw detection applications involving straight beam tests, such as
when looking for voids in metal ingots or delaminations in composites, and also in
many thickness gaging applications.

Figure 2. A typical contact transducer.

Angle beam transducers

These are similar in construction to contact transducers, but are designed to be used
with angle beam wedges to generate sound tilted at an angle to the coupling surface.
Wedges are commonly configured to generate refracted shear waves at 45, 60, or 70
degrees. They are standard in most weld inspections since testing the most common
weld geometries requires aiming sound waves at an angle. These transducers are
referenced in all common weld inspection codes.
Figure 3. A typical angle beam transducer with wedge.

Delay line transducers

Delay line transducers incorporate a cylinder of plastic, epoxy, or fused silica known as
a delay line between the active element and the test piece. A major reason for using
them is for thin material applications like testing spot welds in sheet metal or measuring
very thin test pieces, where it is important to separate the excitation pulse recovery
from backwall echoes. A delay line is often used as a thermal insulator, protecting the
heat-sensitive transducer element from direct contact with hot test pieces. Delay lines
can also be shaped or contoured to improve sound coupling in sharply curved or
confined spaces.

Immersion transducers
Immersion transducers, as the name implies, are designed to be immersed in water and
use a column or bath of water to couple sound energy into the test piece. These
transducers frequently incorporate an acoustic lens that focuses the sound beam into a
small spot, increasing sensitivity to small reflectors. They are commonly used for on-
line or in-process tests on moving parts, for scanned tests, and for optimizing sound
coupling into sharp radiuses, grooves, or channels in test pieces with complex
geometry.

Figure 5: A typical immersion transducer with handheld bubbler.

Dual element transducers

Dual element transducers, or simply "duals," are used primarily for tests involving
rough, corroded surfaces. They incorporate separate transmitting and receiving elements
mounted on a delay line at a small angle to focus sound energy a selected distance
beneath the surface of a test piece. Although thickness measurement with duals is
sometimes not as accurate as with other types of transducers, they usually provide
significantly better performance in corrosion survey applications due to their higher
sensitivity to pitting and improved near surface resolution. They are also commonly
used for high-temperature testing since most duals will tolerate contact with hot
surfaces, and for flaw detection in rough-surfaced castings.

Figure 6. An example of al dual element transducer.

The high-frequency vibrations that are the basis of ultrasonic NDT commonly occur as
either longitudinal waves (particle motion parallel to wave direction) or shear waves
(particle motion perpendicular to wave direction). All commonly used NDT
transducers generate longitudinal waves. Thickness gaging and straight beam flaw
detection normally use longitudinal waves, which are the easiest to create and
propagate well through typical engineering materials. Shear waves are used in most
angle beam inspections of welds and similar structures. Angle beam assemblies use
refractive mode conversion to turn the longitudinal waves generated by the transducer
into shear waves, which have a shorter wavelength than comparable longitudinal waves
and are thus more sensitive to small reflectors. Some immersion tests also utilize shear
waves generated by mode conversion. Other modes, such as surface waves and plate
waves, also exist as well as contact transducers that generate shear waves directly, but
these are employed only in specialized tests.
In addition to the various design types, ultrasonic transducers are available in a wide
variety of frequencies, sizes, and bandwidths to meet different application needs. Most
ultrasonic testing is performed at frequencies between 1 MHz and 10 MHz, however
commercially available transducers range in frequency from less than 50 KHz to greater
than 200 MHz. (By comparison, the range of human hearing is from approximately 20
Hz to 20 KHz, decreasing as a person gets older.) Commonly used element sizes range
from as small as 0.125 in. (3 mm) to 1.5 in. (38 mm). Bandwidth, or the span of
frequencies contained in the spectrum generated by the transducer, may be either narrow
or broad.
Why all these choices? Because of basic wave physics, each of these parameters affects
the behavior of the sound wave in ways that will have advantages and disadvantages in
a given test.
· Higher frequencies permit detection of smaller flaws and measurement of
thinner test pieces, but the sound energy won’t travel as far as at lower
frequencies. Lower frequencies provide better penetration of thick test pieces,
especially in materials like cast metals and plastics that transmit sound less
 efficiently, but they will be less sensitive to small flaws and may not measure
thin sections.
· Large elements can permit quicker scanning of a test piece, but will reduce
sensitivity to small reflectors and may not couple well onto curved surfaces like
pipes. Smaller elements will be more sensitive to small reflectors and will
couple better onto curved surfaces, but will not test large areas as quickly.
· Broadband transducers have good near surface resolution, enabling detection of
flaws close to the surface and measuring thin parts. Narrowband transducers
have better penetration and can generate stronger echoes from reflectors, but
exhibit less axial resolution.
So which one is best for your application? In many cases, the choice of a transducer
will be dictated by an established inspection code or test procedure that calls out a
specific type. But if no procedure is available, the inspector must decide on the best
transducer for the test based on his or her knowledge of ultrasonic theory, the defined
test goals (such as the type and size of flaws that need to be resolved), and the specific
material, thickness, and geometry of the test piece. While knowledge of theory and some
NDT experience are essential, in some cases an inspector’s skills must be
supplemented by experimentation on test samples to determine what transducer will
work best.
Transducers are commonly supplied with test forms (Figure 7) that document basic
performance characteristics, typically with respect to a generally recognized test
procedure such as ASTM E-1065. These forms verify product consistency and
adherence to specifications. In the example below, the test form documents peak and
center frequencies, upper and lower frequency limits, bandwidth, and RF waveform
under the listed test conditions. For advanced users, manufacturers can also supply
more specialized documentation such as electrical impedance plots and beam profiles
when required.
Figure 7. An example of a manufacturer’s transducer test form.
While the transducer is an essential part of any test, instrument setup is also a critical
factor. Instrument manufacturers will typically supply recommended procedures for
calibrating their instrument with a given transducer for a given test. At a minimum, this
involves setting gain (sensitivity) levels and zero offset with respect to the transducer
being used and material sound velocity. This is usually accomplished with the aid of
appropriate test blocks or reference samples. Depending on the instrument and the test,
other parameters such as pulse energy, damping, and receiver filtering may also need
adjustment. A properly trained inspector will be familiar with all of these settings and
know how to use them to optimize test results in each case. Good practice also dictates
that instrument settings be verified whenever the transducer is changed, or if the
transducer shows signs of excessive wear. Many test procedures require periodic
calibration checks during inspections to help ensure that nothing affecting test results
has changed.
Transducers from quality manufacturers will usually last for years if treated well,
however, they are sensitive devices that should be protected from damage due to
excessive shock or vibration, abrasion from scraping against rough surfaces, exposure
to corrosive liquids, and overheating. Unless specified for high-temperature use, most
single element transducers should not be subjected to temperatures higher than
approximately 125 °F (50 °C). Transducers with significant visible surface wear should
be checked for performance before use. Dual element transducers can frequently be
resurfaced, and delay lines can be easily replaced, but damage to contact transducers is
non-repairable. High-pressure environments, underwater use, and other special
environments should be reviewed with the transducer manufacturer. In cases where test
piece geometry restricts access, special transducers can sometimes be designed to fit.
Again, consultation with the manufacturer is recommended.
Ultrasonic Testing – Pulse-Echo Method
The method is based on mechanical waves (ultrasound) generated by a piezo-
magnetically excited element at a frequency typically in the range between 2 and 5
MHz. Control involves the transmission, reflection, absorption of ultrasonic propagated
wave in the controlled part. Transmitted wave beam is reflected within the play and the
flaws, then returns to the flaw that can be both transmitter and receiver. Positioning fault
is done by interpretation of the signals.

Applications:
· Identification of internal defects in welds, metal, plastics, ceramics, glass.

· Examination of plates, castings and forgings.

Types of examinations:
· Pulse-echo ultrasound examination using longitudinal and transverse waves.

Advantages:
· Ultrasonic examination presents a series of advantages compared to other non-
destructive methods, it has a high sensitivity and high mobility;

· Using the method is not limited only to magnetic materials (as with magnetic
particles) nor to the discontinuities open to the surface (such as dye penetrant)
and to the scan, it does not require any kind of radiation protection;

· The possibility of determining the position of the defect in the controlled part;
 · Mobility of the equipment.

Equipment:
· Krautkramer-USM 36;

· Olympus –MXU.
Ultrasonic Examination – Time of Flight
Diffraction (TOFD)
Time of flight diffraction is one of the most advanced techniques of ultrasound
examination. The method is based on the phenomenon of diffraction of the ultrasonic
waves that create virtual images of the discontinuities found in the examined parts.
This method has a higher degree of accuracy than any other method of ultrasound and it
is considered to be one of the fastest NDT methods because a weld can be examined in
a single scan.

Advantages:
● ž Images obtained with the help TOFD guarantees complete coverage of the area
examined/ inspected;
● TOFD technology can detect 100% defects in controlled parts;
● ž TOFD has a high sensitivity regarding the detection of defects planar, vertical or
horizontal which can not be distinguished by X-ray or with conventional UT;
● TOFD system is able to store and evaluate the details of the defects, on the height,
length, and makes this with a high degree of accuracy using the TomoView
program;
● The ability to show multiple images at the same time, resulting in rapid
identification of discontinuities with the help of TomoView and Omni PC
programs. ž Configuring examination with the help of Estbean Tools and Setup
Bilder.
Applications:
· ž Control of welds with large thicknesses;

· žž Recording and storage on the control device and transmitting the recorded CD.

Equipments:
· ž Olympus MXU;

· ž Olympus MX2.
Straight Beam Tests
Straight beam testing is generally employed to find cracks or delaminations parallel to
the surface of a test piece, as well as voids and porosity. It may use contact, delay line,
dual element, or immersion transducers, all of which launch longitudinal waves on a
straight path into the test piece. Common applications include testing plates, bars,
forgings, and castings, as well as bolts and hanger pins and similar parts that can crack
parallel to an accessible surface. Straight beam testing is also commonly employed in
testing fiberglass and composites, as discussed in section 7.6.
Like all other ultrasonic flaw detection techniques, straight beam testing utilizes the
basic principle that sound energy traveling through a medium will continue to propagate
until it either disperses or reflects off a boundary with another material, such as the air
surrounding a far wall or the gap created by a crack or similar discontinuity. In this type
of test, the operator couples the transducer to the test piece and identifies the echo
returning from the far wall, as well as any fixed reflections originating from geometrical
structures such as grooves or flanges. After noting the characteristic pattern of echoes
derived from a good part, the operator then looks for any additional echoes that appear
ahead of that backwall echo in a test piece, discounting grain scatter noise if present. An
acoustically significant echo that precedes the backwall echo implies the presence of a
laminar crack or void. Through further analysis, the depth, size, and shape of the
structure producing the reflection can be determined.
No Flaw Present
Sound travels through material and reflects off backwall.
Flaw Present
● Some sound travels through entire material and reflects off the backwall, while
some reflects off the intermediary flaw
● Echo amplitude correlates to flaw size
In the case of flat plates and smooth bars, this procedure is usually straightforward.
Straight beam testing can also be used to test braze joints and other bondlines that are
oriented parallel to the surface. In these cases, even a good joint typically returns an
echo since the braze metal or bonding material differs from the material being joined.
However comparative testing will normally show that a lack of bonding returns an even
larger echo, so the bondline echo amplitude is used as an indicator of the bond
condition.

Angle Beam Inspection

While straight beam techniques can be highly effective at finding laminar flaws, they are
not effective when testing many common welds, where discontinuities are typically not
oriented parallel to the surface of the part. The combination of weld geometry, the
orientation of flaws, and the presence of the weld crown or bead require inspection
from the side of the weld using a beam generated at an angle. Angle beam testing is by
far the most commonly used technique in ultrasonic flaw detection.
Angle beam probes consist of a transducer and a wedge, which may be separate parts or
built into a single housing. They use the principle of refraction and mode conversion at
a boundary to produce refracted shear or longitudinal waves in a test piece as shown
below.

Most commonly used angle beam probes generate a refracted shear wave at
standardized angles of 45, 60, or 70 degrees in the test material. The incident angle
necessary to produce a desired refracted angle is based on material sound velocities
and is calculated from Snell’s Law through the equation below.

In the typical case of a plastic or epoxy wedge coupled to steel, low incident angles
will generate both longitudinal and shear wave beam components, and specialized
longitudinal wave angle beam wedges do exist. However at commonly used inspection
angles only a primary shear wave will be generated, since the L-wave solution to the
equation would exceed 90 degrees, which is not possible.
In typical inspections the sound beam will travel at the generated angle down to the
bottom of the test piece and then reflect upward at the same angle. Moving the probe
back and forth causes the sound beam to sweep across the full height of a weld. This
scanning motion enables inspection of the entire weld volume and detection of
discontinuities both at the fusion lines and within the weld body.

As in the case of straight beam testing, in angle beam testing the operator looks for
reflections corresponding to discontinuities. During initial setup the operator must note
any echoes that originate from weld bead or other geometric structures. Additional
echoes appearing within the zone representing the weld would correspond to a lack of
fusion, cracking, porosity, or other discontinuities whose type, depth, and size can be
determined through further analysis.
In the example below, the sound beam passes through a good weld without reflecting
back, and no significant indications are seen on the screen. A discontinuity within the
weld zone, however, causes a strong reflection with the zone of interest marked by the
red gate.
Angle Beam Probe Selection
Angle Beam Probe Selection
The various types of ultrasonic transducers used in flaw detection applications were
discussed in Section 4.1. In construction weld inspection, angle beam probes are the
primary tool, supplemented by straight beam transducers. Angle beam probes may be
comprised of separate, interchangeable transducers and wedges, or they may be integral
assemblies. In many cases, the transducer/wedge combination to be used for an
inspection will be specified by a relevant code or inspection procedure. If no probe has
been specified, the inspector must select one appropriate for the test at hand based on
the following considerations.

Frequency:
Angle beam transducers are generally available in frequencies from 500 KHz to 10
MHz, however most weld testing is performed at frequencies between 2 MHz and 5
MHz. Lower frequencies provide greater penetration across long sound paths or through
coarse grained metal, while higher frequencies provide better resolution of small flaws.
If not otherwise specified by code, 4 MHz or 5 MHz is usually a good frequency with
which to begin an evaluation.

Angle:
Almost all angle beam testing is performed at standard angles of 45, 60, and 70 degrees,
although 30 degree and 90 degree (surface wave) wedges are also used in some
specialized cases. As a general rule, higher angle wedges (60 and 70 degree) are
commonly used when metal thickness is less than approximately 25 mm (1”), and lower
angle wedges (45 degree) are commonly used when metal thickness is greater than
approximately 50 mm (2”). Two or three different angles may be used in a given test
based on part geometry and flaw resolution requirements. Further information can be
found in common inspection codes. The wedge angle in a given case should be high
enough that a first leg signal can reach the weld root from a position on the part surface
that is not obstructed by the weld crown.

Size:
Angle beam transducers and wedges are available in a wide range of shapes and sizes,
with round, square, or rectangular elements. North American industry practice favors
the use of round elements (except in AWS code inspections), while European practice
favors square or rectangular. The most common element sizes include 0.25”, 0.5”, and
1” diameter for round elements and 8x9 mm, 14x14 mm, and 20x22 mm for
square/rectangular elements, however a number of other standard sizes are also
available. Smaller elements can provide better resolution of small flaws, and smaller
wedges can more easily conform to curved surfaces. Larger elements provide more area
coverage and thus faster scanning, as well as reduced beam spreading across long
sound paths.

With these considerations in mind, the inspector should use his/her knowledge
and experience to select the optimum probe or probes for a test. Where possible, probe
performance should be verified on test standards containing appropriate reference
reflectors or known defects.

Common Test Practices

· Common Test Practices

Scan patterns
In any ultrasonic test, the operator must move the transducer so as to cover the entire
material volume that must be inspected, and also to cover the range of orientations
needed to detect all likely flaws. While scan patterns should always be established with
respect to specific test requirements, a common pattern is like this:
The probe is scanned back and forth between the surface point corresponding to a
second leg test of upper part of the weld (left limit in drawing) and the point
corresponding to a first leg test of the lower part of the weld (right limit). The wedge is
angled slightly in alternate directions, and at each pass it is indexed by approximately
one-half its width. This pattern provides full top-to-bottom coverage of the weld while
insuring that there are no coverage gaps in the lateral direction, and the angulation helps
in detection of inclusions, porosity, and other irregularly shaped reflectors. The test is
then repeated from the other side of the weld.
When an indication is observed during this test, procedures may call for further
scanning with probe rotation around the reflector and across an outside arc while aimed
at the reflector. These motions help identify the type of reflector, as discussed in Section
6.6.
Some procedures also call for a scan along the length of the weld axis, with the wedge
aimed slightly inward. The purpose of this scan is to identify transverse cracking in the
weld zone, which may not be visible when the beam is directed perpendicular to the
weld. Again the test is performed from both sides.

A final test is a straight beam examination of the heat affected zone on both sides of the
weld to identify possible laminar cracks. This test typically uses a small diameter
contact transducer to identify indications coming ahead of the backwall echo.

Positioning with respect to crown

As noted above, angle beam tests from the side of a weld typically require scanning the
probe back and forth between the points where the beam hits the bottom of the weld
(first leg) and the top of the weld (second leg). The corresponding points on each side
of the weld can be marked with lines on the surface of the parts. Guides or templates
can be fabricated to help maintain positioning, especially when performing a single-
pass scan of the weld root or crown.
In some cases involving large wedges, relatively thin metal, and large crowns, it may
not be possible to position the wedge close enough to the weld to optimize the first leg
reflection from the weld root. In such cases a smaller wedge or a wedge designed with
a short approach distance should be used. Alternately, testing can be performed in the
second and third legs rather than first and second, but that may be less desirable due to
attenuation and beam spreading effects.
Contouring
Angle beam inspection of circumferential and axial welds in small diameter pipes and
tubes can require contoured wedges for proper coupling. Contouring is generally
recommended whenever the diameter becomes small enough that it becomes difficult to
hold the wedge normal to the test piece, and/or when curvature significantly limits the
area of the wedge in contact with the test piece on a convex radius, or creates a visible
gap under the wedge on a concave radius. Typical wedge contours are shown below.

AID (Axial Inside Diameter)

AOD (Axial Outside Diameter)

CID (Circumferential Inside Diameter)

COD (Circumferential Outside Diameter)
Data Presentation
Ultrasonic data can be collected and displayed in a number of different formats. The
three most common formats are know in the NDT world as A-scan, B-scan and C-scan
presentations. Each presentation mode provides a different way of looking at and
evaluating the region of material being inspected. Modern computerized ultrasonic
scanning systems can display data in all three presentation forms simultaneously.

A-Scan Presentation

The A-scan presentation displays the amount of

received ultrasonic energy as a function of time. The relative amount of received
energy is plotted along the vertical axis and the elapsed time (which may be related
to the sound energy travel time within the material) is displayed along the
horizontal axis. Most instruments with an A-scan display allow the signal to be
displayed in its natural radio frequency form (RF), as a fully rectified RF signal, or
as either the positive or negative half of the RF signal. In the A-scan presentation,
relative discontinuity size can be estimated by comparing the signal amplitude
obtained from an unknown reflector to that from a known reflector. Reflector depth
can be determined by the position of the signal on the horizontal sweep.
 In the illustration of the A-scan
presentation to the right, the initial pulse generated by the transducer is represented
by the signal IP, which is near time zero. As the transducer is scanned along the
surface of the part, four other signals are likely to appear at different times on the
screen. When the transducer is in its far left position, only the IP signal and signal
A, the sound energy reflecting from surface A, will be seen on the trace. As the
transducer is scanned to the right, a signal from the backwall BW will appear later
in time, showing that the sound has traveled farther to reach this surface. When the
transducer is over flaw B, signal B will appear at a point on the time scale that is
approximately halfway between the IP signal and the BW signal. Since the IP
signal corresponds to the front surface of the material, this indicates that flaw B is
about halfway between the front and back surfaces of the sample. When the
transducer is moved over flaw C, signal C will appear earlier in time since the
sound travel path is shorter and signal B will disappear since sound will no longer
be reflecting from it.

B-Scan Presentation
The B-scan presentations is a profile (cross-sectional) view of the test specimen.
In the B-scan, the time-of-flight (travel time) of the sound energy is displayed along
the vertical axis and the linear position of the transducer is displayed along the
horizontal axis. From the B-scan, the depth of the reflector and its approximate
linear dimensions in the scan direction can be determined. The B-scan is typically
produced by establishing a trigger gate on the A-scan. Whenever the signal
intensity is great enough to trigger the gate, a point is produced on the B-scan. The
gate is triggered by the sound reflecting from the backwall of the specimen and by
smaller reflectors within the material. In the B-scan image above, line A is
produced as the transducer is scanned over the reduced thickness portion of the
specimen. When the transducer moves to the right of this section, the backwall line
BWis produced. When the transducer is over flaws B and C, lines that are similar
to the length of the flaws and at similar depths within the material are drawn on the
B-scan. It should be noted that a limitation to this display technique is that
reflectors may be masked by larger reflectors near the surface.
 C-Scan Presentation
The C-scan presentation provides a plan-type view of the location and size of test
specimen features. The plane of the image is parallel to the scan pattern of the
transducer. C-scan presentations are produced with an automated data acquisition
system, such as a computer controlled immersion scanning system. Typically, a data
collection gate is established on the A-scan and the amplitude or the time-of-flight
of the signal is recorded at regular intervals as the transducer is scanned over the
test piece. The relative signal amplitude or the time-of-flight is displayed as a
shade of gray or a color for each of the positions where data was recorded. The C-
scan presentation provides an image of the features that reflect and scatter the
sound within and on the surfaces of the test piece.
High resolution scans can produce very detailed images. Below are two ultrasonic
C-scan images of a US quarter. Both images were produced using a pulse-echo
technique with the transducer scanned over the head side in an immersion scanning
system. For the C-scan image on the left, the gate was setup to capture the
amplitude of the sound reflecting from the front surface of the quarter. Light areas in
the image indicate areas that reflected a greater amount of energy back to the
transducer. In the C-scan image on the right, the gate was moved to record the
intensity of the sound reflecting from the back surface of the coin. The details on the
back surface are clearly visible but front surface features are also still visible
since the sound energy is affected by these features as it travels through the front
surface of the coin.
A-Scans and C-Scans
The ultrasonic inspection of metals for internal defects is similar in many respects to
searching for fish using an ultrasonic fish finder. In each case a sonic transducer sends
out a short-duration sound pulse and then “listens” for returning echoes. The defect is
analogous to the fish, and the metal grains are analogous to weeds, rocks and other
scatterers that can mask the presence of the fish.

One common method of displaying “raw” ultrasonic data is termed an “A-scan”. There
the transducer is fixed in position and one looks at the strength of the returning echoes as
a function of time, or equivalently of penetration depth. In our fishing analogy, the boat
is moored in one spot.
Another common data display type is an ultrasonic C-scan. There the transducer is
scanned in two dimensions above the specimen being inspected. The display typically
shows the peak response within a time or depth interval of interest as a function of
transducer position. In our fishing analogy, the boat moves across the lake in raster
search pattern.
B-Scan Ultrasonic testing

The ultrasonic test is based on the reflection phenomenon of acoustic waves when they
meet obstacles to their spread. The wave is reflected back to its source, if the obstacle
is in a normal position in relation to the incident beam. These phenomena are the base
of the ultrasonic testing. The ultrasonic conventional testing equipment is based on the
principle to send a pulsed ultra-high frequency ultrasonic testing beam from a hand-held
transducer which is placed on the surface of the object to be tested.

This wave is launched and then partially returns from spots with internal imperfection
or from the back wall of the material (background echo). The returning sound is
captured and analyzed, giving useful information that is displayed on the ultrasonic
testing equipment screen, showing the pulse amplitude and the return time length to the
transducer.

MANUAL SYSTEM

It is a system in which the inspector is directly carrying out the examination, i.e., he is
responsible for the correct application of the inspection procedures, including the head
handling and the data interpretation.

The presentation of this result on the screen is called: A scan.

As shown in the image below:

B scan:
It is a graphical presentation method of the results of a series of thickness measurements
that shows, in scale, the cross-section of the component or the inspected part.

The B-Scan thicknesses tracking allows the location, identification and sizing of
thickness losses and cavities, providing a permanent record using a printer or a video
tape, and a mapping by means of planned view sketches.

AUTOMATED / MECHANICAL SYSTEM

It is a system where the inspector does not actuate during the test while this one is
automatically performed.

Actuation area: results interpretation

NOTE: The automatic system is related to the data processing method (computer) and
the mechanical one to the application method (Robots, equipment, ...).
NDT - Phased Array Ultrasonic testing (PAUT)

LMATS’s PAUT experts have been involved in various research and development
programs and have been pioneers in some of the techniques in Australia. The research
and development program focused on PAUT as an emerging technique for the advanced
inspection of critical discontinuities in the power industry. LMATS’s personnel have
conducted literature reviews and published local conference papers of PAUT on
compliance to Standards and the use of qualification blocks to increase probability of
detection. Research investigations have been conducted on the effects of PAUT signal
responses to temperature, surface conditions and couplants beyond those prescribed in
Standards. Specially designed calibration blocks were also fabricated for PAUT testing
on different materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, low carbon steel and Inconel.
Undertaking the research and development program has produced sound fundamentals
for understanding the theory and practical aspects behind PAUT.

PAUT fits into the NDT inspection repertoire and is complimentary just like any other
technique. The technique has many potential applications, but can be inhibited by
limitations such as geometry, time and access. In general, a scan plan is required as an
initial step to ensure suitable beam coverage is achieved. LMATS’s team of PAUT
operators are capable of developing PAUT scan plans and can offer technical
justification summaries to account for test parameters. Furthermore, they have vast
experience in developing PAUT procedures and work instructions for the traceability
and repeatability of inspections

LMATS’s personnel have experience performing PAUT inspections locally and

overseas. They have vast experience in many industries ranging from power generation,
mining, transport and petrochemical. LMATS’s personnel are certified by AINDT,
BINDT, TWI CSWIP Phased Array Level 2 and are competent at performing PAUT in
these environments through regular safety training and inductions. LMATS provide
regular PAUT / TOFD services from our branches in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and
Western Australia. From one of these branches, PAUT / TOFD services are also offered
in Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory and overseas in Malaysia, Indonesia,
Phillipines and PNG.

Depending on client needs, LMATS has capabilities to deliver the following

expertise:
· Perform encoded scans on complex geometries

· Individually tailor development of qualification blocks, configuring rigs for

data collection and levels of post-analysis reporting
· 100% weld volume coverage at scanning intervals of 1mm, of high pressure
and high temperature piping welds at power station sites using encoded scanning
on circumferential and seam welds between 20mm to 75mm wall thickness

· Inspection of small bore tubes - internal diameter of 50mm down to 6mm.

· Inspection of complex geometry branch welds with variable weld profile

using encoded scanning for accurate sizing of internal defects

· Turbine and generator components inspections with special focus on areas

of high stress concentration such as fur tree serrations of turbine blade roots and
geometry changes along exciter cooling fans
· Detection of corrosion wastage in wind tower foundation bolts with reliable
monitoring of corrosion wastage along the length of bolts up to 5 times its
diameter.

· Corrosion inspection of storage tanks

· In-situ inspection of transverse cracks along shafts and axles for the public
transport sector.
 · Provide accurate analysis and reporting on the presence of any cracks to
enable the client to make an informed decision for repair or continued operation

· Country wide inspection of pipeline welding, high pressure vessels,

bifurcation lines and valve bodies and provision of detailed analysis reports.
· Inspection of various flat and shaped Aerospace CFRP (Composite Fibre
Re-enforced Polymers) for delaminations and other discontinuities

PAUT - Phased Array Ultrasonic testing

PAUT - Phased Array Ultrasonic testing is one of the advanced Ultrasonics methods,
widely known for its higher probability of detection and precise measurement
capability. PAUT has many advantages over other traditional ultrasonic and
radiograpahic test methods. PAUT is Fast, Accurate, Traceable, Archivable
LMATS has capabilities to deliver the following expertise:
· PAUT Corrosion mapping to estimate thickness at finite points in pressure
vessels, pipes, tanks and structures.

· PAUT on butt welds in pipes and pressure vessels and large

[Link] lines, Valve bodies, etc
· PAUT scans on complex geometries including painted cylindrical,
trapezoidal fuel transport tankers

· Individually tailor development of qualification blocks, configuring rigs for

data collection and levels of post-analysis reporting
 · 100% weld volume coverage at scanning intervals of 1mm, of high pressure
and high temperature piping welds at power station sites using encoded scanning
on circumferential and seam welds between 20mm to 75mm wall thickness

· Inspection of small bore tubes - Internal diameter of down to 38mm; having

a minimum wall thickness of 6mm

· Inspection of complex geometry branch welds with variable weld profile

using encoded scanning for accurate sizing of internal defects
· Turbine and generator components inspections with special focus on areas
of high stress concentration such as fur tree serrations of turbine blade roots and
geometry changes along exciter cooling fans

· Detection of corrosion wastage in wind tower foundation bolts or other

similar HOLD DOWN BOLTS with reliable monitoring of corrosion wastage
along the length of bolts up to 5 times its diameter
· In-situ inspection of transverse cracks in shafts, axles, spindles, hold down
bolts.

· Precise detection, measurement and reporting of smaller cracks for

condition monitoring or repair.

· Inspection of various Aerospace CFRP (Composite Fibre Re-enforced

Polymers) for delaminations and other discontinuities.
LMATS has developed several innovative PAUT solutions for odd shaped objects. One
of the PAUT application developed by LMATS is shown below. The following
photograph illustrates an unit which is designed and developed to examine mobile fuel
transport tanks from outside painted surface to detect anamolies on the internal surface
without emptying the tank.
This eliminates the need of emptying the tank followed by washing, drying for confined
space entry for internal inspection. This innovative solution had eliminated downtime
for the Asset owners increasing their productivity and thus saving operational cost.
PAUT Corrosion & thickness mapping
Advanced PAUT Corrosion mapping and wall thickness inspections
LMATS offer PAUT Corrosion mapping and wall thickness inspections. PAUT
Corrosion mapping and wall thickness inspections are used to identify the assets
condition affecting short-term reliability and identify immediate remedial maintenance
needs. LMATS are also able to identify trends (component and plant monitoring) for
medium to long-term reliability and maintenance planning.

LMATS regularly inspect for corrosion and wall thickness on a variety of assets
including:

· Tank Bottoms

· Tank Walls

· Pipelines both on and off line

· Bridge decks

· Bridge staunchens.

LMATS Advanced NDT PAUT Corrosion & thickness mapping services covers the
following industries but not limited to:

· Petro Chemical

· Gas

· Oil

· Energy Generation

· Transport

· Aerospace

· Marine

· Manufacturing
· Refrigeration

· and more.
Time of Flight Diffraction Technique (TOFD)
Abstract
The article begins with an introduction of TOFD technique principles. The main part
reviews some recent literature wherein excellent results for TOFD were obtained,
especially regarding speed. The author gives examples of known problems when TOFD
is used and recommends not discarding proven test methods in favor of the cost-saving
factor of TOFD, however, TOFD can be a valuable add-on for other test methods.

Introduction
The first information on Time of Flight Diffraction Technique (TOFD) for ultrasonic
testing on welds was introduced in 1977 [1]. The method was reported extensively in
English publications and was also introduced in Germany [2]; nevertheless the method
was more or less ignored by German NDT experts. Finally, in 1996, a European pre-
standard was announced and thanks to that and some newly published papers [4-6] it
seems that TOFD is on the way to replacing radiography and other UT techniques. One
paper published in 1995 [7] referred to the wide acceptance of the method with a
"TOFD Comes of Age" article.

The following main principles describe TOFD:

1. Two angle beam probes (usual 45°) are placed as a transmitter-receiver
arrangement and are connected together (Fig 1). The distance of the probes
is calculated according to the wall thickness.
2. Longitudinal waves are usually applied. The sound beam spread is large
to maximize the extent of the scan.
3. The A-scan (Fig 4) [9] shows the so-called lateral wave, the back wall
echoes and between both signals other signals can possibly appear, which
can occur due to inhomogeneity. The A-Scan is not rectified in the TOFD
technique.
4. TOFD technique is always applied with imaging methods (Fig 5) [9].
Fig 5 shows the B-Scan image generated by horizontal probe movement and sound time
of flight in a vertical direction. The echo amplitude is displayed as gray scale, usually
zero amplitude light gray (negative maximum amplitude black, positive maximum
amplitude white). For weld testing it is important to notice that the probes are aligned
transversal to the weld, while the image is generated in the direction of the weld. That
means the image projection of Fig 5 stands perpendicular to the probe projection shown
in Fig 1!

In practice, testing with the TOFD method is only applied by continuously moving the
probe pair along the weld seam, while in traditional UT techniques the probe must be
also moved perpendicular to the weld seam. Depending on the equipment the scan is
performed either manually or by use of an automated manipulator. In any case a
computerized data evaluation is necessary. In a very early stage of the TOFD method an
instrument called "ZipScan" was applied, while today many instruments which can
perform B-Scans can be used - many of those are available worldwide.
Three recent examples
As already mentioned TOFD weld testing was mainly applied outside Germany - here
are three recent examples:

1. A platform in the North Sea was inspected for underwater welds of

a repaired construction with a speed of 45 minutes for each. A
radiography would need 16 to 29 hours [4].
2. In West Java 2000 m welds on 8 gas containers, the test was carried
out at a very high speed. Every day 60 - 100 m of welds were tested
with TOFD /5/.
3. A report of the Netherlands welding institute (NIL) documented a
higher probability of detection and lower test costs for the TOFD
technique than other NDT methods [6]. So TOFD is twice as reliable
than manual UT and by 1,3 more reliable than radiography. The latter
 is by 1,5 more expensive than TOFD. Besides flaw detection, TOFD
can also perform sizing.

Can TOFD perform all NDT tasks?

Does that mean that TOFD is a testing technique which can perform all NDT
tasks?
In the author's opinion the three most important drawbacks of TOFD are
described herein:

1. Sensitivity level
The European pre-standard [3] points out that TOFD only evaluates the time of flight
and not the amplitude of the diffracted echoes.
If the instrument sensitivity (gain) is set on very low level, the TOFD image would
display no diffracted echo. If the instrument sensitivity is set just above electronic
noise level, the TOFD image will display a lot of diffracted echoes which are
caused by very small inhomogeneities of the weld seam and does not mean that the
weld is really bad.

Also for the TOFD technique it is necessary to define a gain or an amplitude level
because the performed test always demands acceptance criteria.

2. Crack size determination

The following case is described: A weld was tested during production according to
AD-HP 5/3 with a sensitivity of detection of FBH 3 mm. That means that the weld
possibly contains many inhomogeneities of FBH 1mm. In-service by use of the
traditional angle beam testing can find a crack. The same crack can only be detected
with a much higher gain setting if the TOFD technique is applied, since crack tip
echoes respond with a very small amplitude in a range of FBH < 0,7 mm.

In practice, diffracted echoes at crack tips are not so clear as they are displayed in
Figs 4 and 5. Crack tip echoes are part of a noise area caused by other irrelevant
diffracted echoes of inhomogeneity. That can make sizing with the TOFD technique
impossible. A TOFD image inspector needs to perform depiction decisions similar
to that used in radiography. He or she must distinguish the relevant echoes.

3. Detection of small cracks at backside

This is one of the main disadvantages of TOFD. For in-service inspection of welds
it is usually not so important to find old defects inside the weld seam. More
important is the detection of cracks at the backside of containers or piping. As an
inspection example defects of 0.5 mm depth and app. 10 mm length must be tested at
a pressure component or container of 30 mm wall thickness

The use of diffracted echoes is for that task is not possible. So close to the back wall
the crack tip echo amplitude is very small. In that case traditional UT techniques
with angle beam probes and use of the mirror effect must be applied . The TOFD
technique is not applicable here!

TOFD Weld testing Solutions

Advanced NDT TOFD Time Of Flight Defraction Inspection Weld testing ‐ High
precision in sizing & monitoring of vertical discontinuities LMATS now has the tools
and equipment to bring a whole new range of testing and detection capabilities to our
customers.
LMATS offer TOFD Time Of Flight Defraction Weld Testing for:
· Weld root erosion testing in fluid carrying pipelines, high pressure steam
pipes in power stations
· Fatigue crack sizing & monitoring to continue plant operation safely before
reaching critical crack size
· Stress corrosion cracks & Creep cracks mapping & monitoring to continue
plant operation safely before reaching critical crack size
Advanced NDT TOFD Time Of Flight Defraction ON SITE IMEDIATE
RESULTS:
· Fast inspection of small- and large-diameter welds
· 100 % volumetric weld coverage
· Adaptable to butt welds, circumferential welds, long seams, one-sided
access configuration, and most common weld profiles
 · Inspection of wall thicknesses from 8 mm to 300 mm and part diameters from
100 m to flat
· Digital archiving of inspection data
· Fast and accurate sizing of discontinuities
· Portable for in-house and field inspections
· Improved productivity compared to radiography
· Improved probability of detection (POD) compared to radiography
· Combining Different Techniques for Full-Weld Coverage and Improved
Efficiency.
LMATS are also able to identify trends (component and plant monitoring) for medium to
long-term reliability and maintenance planning by using TOFD Time Of Flight
Defraction testing methods.
LMATS regularly inspectusing TOFD Time Of Flight Defraction for welds in:
· Pressure Vessels
· High pressure steam pipes
· Fluid carrying pipelines
· Fatigue crack sizing.
LMATS Advanced NDT TOFD Time Of Flight Defraction Testing services covers the
following industries but not limited to:
· Petro Chemical
· Gas
· Oil
· Energy Generation
· Transport
· Aerospace
· Marine
· Manufacturing
· Refrigeration
· and more.
Conclusion
Considering the limitations of the TOFD technique described above, discarding proven
test methods in favor of the cost-saving factor of TOFD is not recommended, however,
TOFD can be a valuable add-on for other test methods. Let's look at the example of the
automated UT of welds for pipelines. By use of mechanized test systems like
ROTOSCAN or PIPECAT it was possible to replace the radiography method. The latter
uses 8 focused angle beam probes in pulse echo technique in as in conjunction with one
probe pair for TOFD. Nobody would take the risk of using only the TOFD technique,
however it is a valuable add-on for the complete test.
Grain Noise
If you are involved in the UT inspection of metals, and backscattered grain noise is
making it difficult to reliably detect critical detects in some components, then this case
study will be of special interest to you. It concerns the design of an improved UT
inspection for aircraft engine rotor forgings. A quantifiable inspection goal is often
stated in the following way: “I want to be able to reliably detect any defect that reflects
sound at least as strongly as a number XXX calibration reflector. Flat-bottomed holes
often serve as calibration reflectors, with a number XXX FBH being one having a
diameter of XXX in units of 1/64thof an inch. Thus a number ½ FBH has a diameter of
1/128inches.

One common aircraft engine material is Ti 6-4 (mostly titanium with 6% aluminum and
4% vanadium by weight). As illustrated in the figure below it has a complicated
microstructure which exhibits features on three major length scales. From largest to
smallest, there are so-called macrograins, colonies and platelets. At the large end are
the macrograins, namely large cubic crystallites which form as the molten metal
solidifies. Upon further cooling these are mostly converted into a hexagonal phase,
with many distinct hexagonal “colonies” forming from each macrograin. In this
transition, certain closest-packed planes of atoms have to align, so for a given
macrograin lattice there are 12 possible colony lattices. On a finer scale each colony
consists of many platelets, or aligned hexagonal single crystals with a bit of the residual
cubic phase in between. To make matters worse, these structures have their shapes
changed by mechanical working as the cast ingot is first transformed into a reduced
diameter billet, and again later as a slab from that billet is then forged into the desired
shape.
Within a given forging, backscattered grain noise levels vary considerably with position
and inspection direction. One example of the degree of variation is shown in panel (a)
below. There, small rectangular coupons were cut out of various regions from a
forging, and UT C-scans were made to measure backscattered grain noise levels in
each quadrant of each coupon (relative to a #1 FBH reference reflector in a calibration
block). One sees about a factor of 5 variation in the grain noise level throughout the set
of measurements. If one has sufficient information about the microstructural variations
within the forging, one can use the grain noise models to predict the noise variations.
One sees in panel (b) that much of the noise variability is explained by physical models
which account for the scattering of macrograin/colony structures whose shapes and
orientations are predicted by the metal flow computations of panel (c).
However, such complex model calculations are not required to design an adequate UT
inspection. Rather, one can perform a cursory inspection of a forging to locate the high
noise regions which will be most problematic to inspect. Then, guided by simple
model concepts, one can acquire additional noise data from those regions and plot that
in a manner that is best suited for inspection design. This is exactly what was done in
an FAA-sponsored research program that partnered CNDE with three jet engine
manufacturers (GE, Honeywell, and Pratt&Whitney). Each engine manufacturer
supplied one representative forging, and through various measurements the high noise
region for each was located as illustrated below.
A sound pulse traveling through a metal occupies a physical volume. This volume
changes with depth, being smallest in the focal zone. The volume, a product of a pulse
length L and a cross-sectional area A, can be fairly easily measured by combining
ultrasonic A-scans and C-scans, as will be seen shortly. For many cases of practical
interest, the inspection simulation models predict that S/N is inversely proportional to
the square root of the pulse volume at the depth of the defect. This is known as the
“pulse volume rule-of-thumb” and has become a guiding principle for designing
inspections. Generally speaking, it applies when both the grain size and the lateral size
of the defect are smaller than the sound pulse diameter.
Simulation models can be used to predict pulse volumes, but it is also very
straightforward to measure the pulse volume by scanning the transducer over a small
reflector (so long as the reflector size is smaller than the beam diameter. The process is
demonstrated in two steps in the figures below. Here a #1 FBH serves as small
reflector. In the first step one moves the transducer laterally to maximize the reflected
response from the hole. The A-scan is then acquired and its effective time duration is
measured. From that a pulse length (in inches or centimeters) is computed. In the
second step one scans the transducer in two-dimensions above the reflector, creating a
standard C-scan. Since the beam diameter is larger that the reflector, the C-scan
essentially displays an image of the sound pulse cross-section (or more accurately of
the lateral profile of sound pressure squared). By a simple analysis of the C-scan, as
illustrated, one can deduce an effective area. Multiplying the pulse length by the pulse
area leads to a pulse volume. More technically, we are measuring a “response
weighted pulse volume” which is the true measure that appears in the pulse-volume-
rule-of-thumb (according to the models). The rule-of-thumb itself is obtained by
beginning with the flaw response and noise models, and then making some rough
approximations to greatly simplify the formulism.
How does one make use of sonic pulse volume concepts to design an inspection? Begin
by obtaining a specimen of the noisiest microstructure likely to be encountered in an
inspection (e.g., our high-noise coupon from one of the engine forgings). One can drill
a small FBH in that specimen itself, or use a FBH in a reference block having a similar
sound speed and attenuation. Using several transducers with different degrees of
focusing, one then measures both the pulse volume from the reference reflector and the
backscattered grain noise level from test specimen (at the same depth as the FBH). For
any given transducer, one can also vary the degree of focusing at the FBH by changing
the water path, e.g., by focusing (in turn) in front of, on, and beyond the FBH target. The
process is illustrated in the figure below. Once the noise level has been measured it can
be divided by the peak response from the FBH to obtain a N/S ratio.

Once the pair of related values (sonic pulse volume and N/S) have been measured for
various degrees of focusing, the values can be plotted as in the figure below. We
choose to plot N/S versus the square root of the pulse volume, since the theory indicates
that will result in a linear plot. Typically, the data plotted in this manner tends to
roughly follow a straight line extending through the origin, with some statistical scatter
about the best-fit line. From the plot one can then determine the maximum pulse volume
required to meet inspection goals. In this case, the goal was to have the peak noise at
least 3 dB below the response from a #½ FBH. As a #1 FBH was used as the reference
reflector, allowance was made for the reflectivity differences between #1 and #½ FBHs
(an expected factor of 4 difference). Without worrying too much about the math here,
the result was that N/S as plotted below had to be less than about 0.17 to meet the
inspection goal. That required a sonic pulse volume of about (250)-squared cubic
mils. Thus the forging had to be inspected in such a manner that the sonic pulse volume
was no larger than that value anywhere in the forging volume. Choosing transducers
(either conventional or phased-array) which could be used to perform such an
inspection, given the geometry of the forging, is another interesting topic. That is
addressed by the last of the FAA citations in the reference section.
Influence of Metal Microstructures
The internal structure of a component will influence how sound propagates through it.
Most metal specimens are comprised of small single crystals called “grains”.
Depending on the metal used and its processing history, the average grain size can range
from a few microns to many centimeters. Some metal specimens, such as Nickel alloys
used in jet engine components have one primary type of grain (i.e., grains of “one
phase”). Other metal specimens contain more than one phase. For example jet-engine
titanium alloys often contain a mixture of grains having cubic and hexagonal symmetries,
respectively.

The speed of sound through a given grain depends on the direction of sound propagation
with respect to the crystalline symmetry axes. When a sound wave encounters a
boundary between two grains, the change in sonic properties causes some of the
incident sound energy to be reflected. This leads to detectable ultrasonic signals known
as “grain noise”. On the one hand, such noise can hamper an inspection for a small or
subtle defect. On the other hand it can also be used as a tool for material
characterization, e.g., for making grain size estimates. The microstructure of a metal is
also responsible for a phenomenon known as ultrasonic attenuation. Attenuation
describes the loss of energy (due to scattering and absorption) of a sound pulse as it
propagates through a material.

Signal-to-Noise Ratios

The relative strengths of observed defect signals and grain noise depend on many
factors including the UT instrument being used, the frequency and focusing properties
of the transducer, the surface curvature, and the metal microstructure itself. In defect
detection work, one endeavors to choose inspection parameters that maximize the
signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, ie. the response from the defect divided by the average
response from the competing grain noise. For material characterization work, on the
other hand, it is often useful to choose inspection parameters that maximize the
backscattered grain noise. Below are two ultrasonic C-scans of a metal specimen
containing a set of nine reference reflectors, namely flat-bottomed holes (FBH’s) each
having a diameter of 1/64 inch. For the inspection on the right the ultrasonic responses
from the holes stand out more clearly from the grain noise background. We will revisit
this same figure later when we discuss the concept of ultrasonic pulse volume and its
relationship to S/N ratios.

Below is a C-scan from the inspection of a cylindrical Nickel-alloy billet with the gain
(signal amplification) boosted to highlight the backscattered grain noise. There one
sees obvious variations in backscattered grain noise with position. Upon further study,
these were traced to gradual, systematic changes in the average grain diameter from
region to region, with regions having larger grains producing more backscatter.
Grain Noise Models

Physics-based models have been developed at CNDE which simulate various aspects
of an ultrasonic inspection. Some of the models predict the ultrasonic fields generated
within the component by the action of the transducer. Other predict the reflected
responses from surfaces and hypothetical defects within the component. Another class
of models predict average grain noise levels and other statistical properties of grain
noise distributions. The figure below illustrates one of the model formulas from the so-
called “Independent Scatterer Model”, with the physical meanings of some of the
factors described.
The noise models can be used in a variety of ways. From measured noise data one can
deduce the Figure-of-Merit (FOM) describing the inherent noise generation capacity of
the microstructure. This is a frequency-dependent property of the microstructure alone,
and methods for measuring it have been developed at CNDE. For simple
microstructures, FOM measurement can be used to deduce grain size and shape
information. For example, the figure below shows predicted and measured curves of
backscatter capacity (FOM) as functions of frequency for one Nickel alloy. The
colored curves are predictions for microstructures having average grain diameters of
20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 microns respectively. The plotted points are measured values at
two sites in a billet – there the grain diameters can be inferred as being approximately
20 microns and 40 microns, respectively.
Another example of grain sizing is shown below. In this case the specimen is a 1.5”-
thick plate of Aluminum alloy from a rolling mill. Panel (a) shows the microstructure
as revealed by taking optical photographs and tracing the grain boundaries. Views are
shown for the so-called “rolling”, “normal” and “transverse” directions of the plate.
Roughly speaking, the grains resemble flat “pancakes” which are elongated in the
rolling direction. Panel (b) of the figure depicts the UT grain noise measurement setups,
one at normal incidence to measure backscatter using longitudinal sound waves, and one
at oblique incidence to measure backscatter using shear waves. Panel (c) shows
measured FOM curves for longitudinal waves for sound propagation in the three
orthogonal directions. Finally, panel (d) compares average grain diameters measured in
two ways: (1) from analysis of optical photographs (micrographs); and (2) inferred
from the magnitude and directional dependence of backscattered grain noise.
Alternatively, if the FOM is known for a microstructure of interest, the models can be
used to predict absolute noise characteristics for a given inspection setup. This is
demonstrate in the figure below. There a 5-MHz focused transducer was scanned above
a block of jet-engine titanium alloy, and the average backscattered grain noise level was
measured. The FOM of this specimen had been previously measured and was used to
predict the result of the experiment. Good agreement was seen. As an aside, the first
comparisons between model and experiment were not so favorable. It turned out that
the transducer’s focal length as stated by the manufacturer was about 25% in error. By
measuring the focal length ourselves and using that as an input to the model, much better
agreement was achieved.
Another example comparing noise model predictions with experiment is illustrated
below. The object here was to determine how surface curvature impacts grain noise
levels. A 10-MHz spherically-focused transducer was used to inspect six specimens
having similar microstructures but different surface curvatures. For each specimen, the
transducer was scanned along the center line and the average grain noise level was
measured as a function of signal arrival time (or equivalently of depth). All values
were then normalized by the flat-surface result at the corresponding depth, so as to
isolate the curvature effect. .Measured and predicted results are seen to be in very good
agreement. Except in the near-surface region, the curvature tends to reduce the degree
of beam focusing, thus in turn reducing the measured grain noise.
Below is yet another example of grain noise model predictions. In this case the
objective was to predict the appearance of ultrasonic C-scans for a Ti-alloy specimen
in which the microstructural varied with position. For model calculations of this type,
average noise quantities are first predicted. Then random number generators are used
to construct grain noise amplitude patterns (“speckle patterns”) which obey the
predicted statistical averages.
By combining UT simulation models which predict flaw signals with those which
predict grain noise signals, one can estimate S/N ratios for inspections of components
containing hypothetical defects. Such comparative calculations can be used to zero in
on the optimum inspection setup for meeting particular inspection goals.
Terahertz Imaging
Recently, electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz frequency range, best known as
Terahertz radiation (hereafter abbreviated as THz), has emerged as one of the most
promising measurement techniques for a variety of applications in science and
engineering. THz, residing at a relatively unexplored region between the microwave
and infrared, roughly 0.1-10THz, is one of the last frontiers in the electromagnetic
spectrum. Unlike X-ray, THz causes no known harm to the human body and the
materials being examined. THz can penetrate many common gases, non-polar liquids,
and non-metallic solids including air, plastics, gasoline, paper, plant material, clothing,
fatty tissue, and composites. Because they lie in a frequency region in which molecular
resonances dominate, the absorption spectra of THz exhibit distinct signatures for
substances such as water vapor, polar plastics, certain gases, DNA, crystalline solids,
biofuel, and explosives. These advantages make THz a particularly attractive
characterization tool in the areas of automotive, aviation, food, energy, materials,
pharmaceuticals, medical diagnosis, forensics, defense, and homeland security. In fact,
THz’s ability to penetrate thick foam-like materials has made it the de facto technique to
inspect the foam insulation structures of NASA’s space shuttle fleet, the application that
brought this technology to the interest of CNDE.

For the past five years, under the support of NASA, the Air Force, and the Army, CNDE
has expanded its state-of-the-art modeling and processing capabilities further into THz
technology. Significant progress had been made in addressing the inspection problem of
the space shuttle’s external tank foam insulation as well as in providing assistance to
Air Force Research Laboratory’s THz development. Elsewhere at ISU, faculty and
researchers from various science and engineering disciplines have also quickly
recognized the potential of THz technology. Driven by these needs, the acquisition of
THz systems for imaging and spectroscopy was realized in 2008 via a major funding
boost from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation program,
and a new $0.5M THz research facility was established. With this new THz facility, a
number of applications in physics, chemistry and engineering have been extensively
studied, including the detection of chemical contamination in drinking water pipe
systems, solvation of ionic liquids, fundamental studies of multiphase combustion and
flow processes, and nondestructive evaluation of composite materials. The growing
potential of THz has been further explored in inspecting many other advanced materials
such as ceramic tiles and high-molecular weight fiber polymers used in military
personal protection applications. It is evident that we have extended THz application
opportunities well into the full spectrum of science and engineering disciplines with
significant benefits in both research and education to the entire ISU community.

Research Highlights

Brief descriptions are given below to a few examples of recent research work
conducted in the THz-FTIR facility.

Evaluation of Structural Integrity of Wind Turbines

The evaluation of the structural integrity of U.S. wind farm establishments has made
considerable improvement by using state-of-the-art THz technology. CNDE recently
conducted a promising feasibility study, signifying the superior capability of THz in
determining the structural health of the turbine blades installed in massive windmills all
around the nation.
The energy generated from these wind farms has proven a viable source. Given the
global fuel shortage and recent economic downturn, the demands for wind energy are
growing fast. Consequently, assessing the structural integrity of the wind energy
systems, particularly their key components of turbine blades, has also become a
pressing issue in NDE. However, the structures of the turbine blades, consisting of
complicated layers of mixed materials, have posed a difficult inspection problem to
conventional NDE techniques. For instance, a wavy microstructure (“wrinkle”)
embedded in the glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) laminates of the turbine blades
represents a manufacturing anomaly. With its exceptional time and spatial resolutions,
THz can reveal the wrinkles and quantify their aspect ratios precisely. This work not
only pushes forward NDE research in general, but also contributes to the windpower
industry in the home state of Iowa, which is a leading wind energy-producing state in
the country.

(left) One of the Iowa wind farms; (right) THz imaging in action: a fiberglass laminate
sample containing 7 simulated “wrinkles” is being scanned in reflection mode.
(left) C- and (right) B-scans clearly reveal the 7 “wrinkle” profiles (within the dashed
box) in the fiberglass laminate.

Assessment of Chemical Contamination in Plastic Pipes of Water Distribution

Systems
Plastic pipes such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene (PE) are widely used
in water distribution systems for the conveyance of drinking water. The longevity and
structural integrity of the plastic pipes and the elastomeric gaskets for pipe joints are
impacted by contaminated soils as a result of leaks from underground storage tanks,
chemical spills, and improper disposal of used chemicals. Also of importance is the
permeation of chemicals through the pipe materials or gaskets into the drinking water,
which increases the health risk of consumers. Previous attempts to address these
problems using NDE methods like near infrared have not been successful.

Recently CNDE, teaming up with Professor group in the Department of Civil,

Construction and Environmental Engineering, demonstrated the feasibility of using THz
to evaluate the physical condition and well-being of these plastic pipes. The
preliminary results were quite encouraging. The research team was able to not only
detect the presence of chemical contaminants, but also quantify the depth permeation
into the pipe wall with high precision. This novel technique will have great impact on
solving similar problems such as in the petroleum industry, where oil pipelines are
increasingly replaced by polymeric composites.

(left) Contaminated (left half portion) PVC pipe sample, and (right) its image under
THz.
The comparison of gasoline permeation advancing in the PVC pipe vs. days of
contamination between THz detections (denoted as Direct d) and destructive sectioning
examined under microscopy.

Fun Stuff
This section highlights some other fun things we have done with THz – with an eye on
their potential applications in biomed, agriculture, food safety, quality control,
ergonomics, and design cycle.
(left) Fresh autumn leaves taken outside the THz facility (shown with a 15-cm ruler)
and (right) their corresponding images under THz. Can you spot a piece of plastic tape
in the image?
(top row) THz imaging of a floss box again demonstrates THz’s time-resolved ability to
“peel” through the interior of a structure: (bottom row, left to right) top skin, below top
skin and middle floss core.
Automated Eddy Current Testing for Aero-engine
Components
Advanced 3D Scanning Solution for Aero-engine Components
Aero-engine disc components such as; bearing rings, fan and compressor discs are
typically inspected at different stage of manufacturing from their pre-formed to final
machined shape. Engine bearing are among components that are inspected at different
manufacturing stage, from dimensional controls to the detection of the tiniest surface
flaws on rolling surfaces (bearing raceways). Complementary NDT technologies such
as ultrasonic, liquid penetrant and eddy current testing are used for flaw detection. One
of the challenges for the inspection of these parts arise from the part’s geometry and
complexity. To meet such requirements, high performance Automated NDT Testing
Systems and Equipment are required.
TecScan has developed an Automated Eddy Current Inspection Solution with 3D
scanning capabilities to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. The system is
equipped with a turntable and a relatively small, high frequency eddy-current coil to
scan selected or the whole disc surface. This Eddy Current inspection solution offers
advanced software tools for part programming, importing 3D CAD drawings of the part,
generating the scanning trajectories and completing the motion-controlled inspection
scans. During testing, the turntable rotates the bearing or fan disc, while the probe is
being moved in the 3D space while maintaining constant lift-off and perpendicularity
with the tested surface until the automated inspection is finished. Turntable rotation
speed is continuously adjusted to maintain a constant linear scanning speed on the
surface depending on the radial position of the probe on the surface. During this
operation, the system records the eddy current signals for scan analysis and reporting.

The scanner axes (Z, Y, G and Turn table) as well as the turn table centering mechanism
are all highly accurate and repeatable and this allows for advanced software features
such as; return on defect, constant linear inspection speeds, inspection optimized for
probe squint angle, etc. The gimbal manipulator is equipped with 2 encoders that
monitor position as well as probe lift off ensuring that the Eddy Current signal is
constant throughout the entire inspection.

To increase the systems flexibility, part geometry can be thought using the handheld
pendant or from an imported CAD file. In both cases the part profile can be saved and
recalled. Integrated calibration standards allow the operator to run the standard without
removing the part being inspected.

With automated inspection reports, TecView EC makes this eddy current inspection
system a real production machine capable of handling a large volume of parts.
Automated defect detection and cataloging will help increase operator efficiency by
reducing data analysis times.
The Automated Eddy Current Solution also integrates ECIS-CC-20 an advanced eddy
current instrument . The ECIS-CC-20 is fully digital multi-frequency eddy current
instrument with computer control capabilities. It was designed for wide range of
applications including aerospace, industrial, manufacturing and laboratory testing.
Automated Ultrasonic Scanners: Impact of Axes Misalignment
Ultrasonic testing using immersion or squirter systems require appropriate metrological calibration and alignment in
order to provide excellent system performances including repeatability and defect detectability. In addition, the required
performances of the automated UT system are related to the targeted inspection application. Simple applications
where large defects are sought may only require basic system alignment and calibration. However, for advanced 2D
& 3D ultrasonic testing and scanning, tighter system alignment needs to be achieved, with values which would
guarantee optimal stability of the UT system, therefore allowing the probe to be perfectly perpendicular to the tested
part.

Case study
To evaluate the targeted system alignment, tests were performed on woven composite samples where the variations of
UT results (C-Scans) as a function of controlled mechanical deviations were evaluated. A 10-axis automated
gantry/squirter scanning system was used to perform the measurements. The evaluated sample is a 12mm thick flat
plate composite panel. Defects were simulated using 9 square Teflon® inserts with 0.25”, 0.5” and 1” dimension.
 Scan setup and axes directions for the flat plate

Scan Results
A reference scan was performed on the flat woven composite sample before each misalignment test sequence. Prior
to this inspection, squirters were carefully aligned in order to provide the most effective signal transmission through the
sample. A scan was performed and then used as a comparative reference for all other scans performed following a
controlled axes misalignment.

All C-scans were made at a 1 mm resolution and a water path of 110 mm using a 6 mm water jet. Data was acquired
at a 25 MHz sample rate and with a precision of 14 bits.
 C-Scan color palette of defects

For each scan, the sensitivity was adjusted until the baseline amplitude was approximately 80%, i.e the gain was
adjusted between each misalignment in order to readjust the reference amplitude to ~80%.

Linear misalignment: (Y & Z direction)

In terms of the Z & Y directions, a linear misalignment of emitter probe relative to receiving probe along the Z-axis
was first tested then followed by test in the Y-axis. Scans were made with probe misalignment increments of 1 to 2mm
up to a maximum ±12mm relative to the reference scan.
 C-Scans from different misalignment in Z (misalignment in mm is indicated above each C-Scan image)
Following misalignment in Y and Z, a comparison between the results obtained was done in order to confirm the
independence of the results as a function of direction. A good correlation can be observed between the results
obtained in both directions, confirming that there is no directivity effect for linear probe misalignment on the sample.
The data analysis was done by measuring the difference between the minimum amplitude of each indication and the
amplitude value found at the histogram peak for each C-Scan image (roughly corresponding to the average response
of the background). As expected, the variation is symmetrical for both positive and negative misalignment.

Comparison of the difference between the minimum signal amplitude of each defect and the histogram
peak of the corresponding C-Scan image as a function of combined misalignment in Y (solid lines) and a
misalignment in Z (dotted lines)
Defect sizing was also evaluated as a function of probe misalignment. Again, no difference is observed between a
misalignment in Y or Z and constant defect sizing was observed for a fairly wide misalignment. Defects of 0.5” and 1”
are properly sized for misalignment up to +/- 10 mm, while only the 0.25mm is not properly sized above +/- 5 mm.
Comparison of the dimension of each defect obtained at 6dB below the histogram peak amplitude as a
function of independent misalignments in Y (solid lines) and Z (dotted lines). a) Dimension along the Y
axis; b) Dimension along the Z axis
This study was also extended to evaluate the angular misalignment of the probe and combination of both linear and
angular misalignment. The results showed that for this type of composite material, the outcome on defect sizing and
signal-to-noise ratio are dependent on the equivalent linear misalignment on the material surface rather than the
angular offset itself.
a) Comparison of the difference between the minimum signal amplitude of each defect and the histogram
peak of the corresponding C-Scan image as a function of misalignment in Z (dotted lines) and the
equivalent misalignment caused by an angular offset (solid lines). b) Comparison of the Z dimension of the
defects under the same configuration.

Conclusions
This case study has provided interesting insights about effects of mechanical system alignment and its impact on
defect detection in a woven composite materials. The conclusion of this case study is that the interaction of the
ultrasound with the material that is inspected by a scanner has an impact on the required mechanical tolerances.
Flexible UT Inspection
Ultrasonic testing is one of the most effective ways to validate the integrity of
aerospace composites.
Introduction of automated ultrasonic testing for aerospace composites has benefited the non-destructive testing (NDT)
field through increased inspection speed, imaging capabilities and repeatability. The issue with testing these unique and
exotic materials is primarily due to their shape. NDT is by far the most efficient way to have advanced testing on
complex components, and with automated systems it creates an added value due to highly repeatable inspections. The
problem is this requires exceptionally capable NDT system hardware, electronics and software which guaranty
inspection speed, reliability and repeatability.

Advanced Inline UT Testing

In line automated manufacturing has quickly become more complex than ever. In order to ensure the quality of the
product being manufactured, inline testing is now a critical part of the manufacturing process. Many different
inspection techniques such as; visual, electromagnetic, ultrasonic and many more are used in industry. Each method is
intended for a specific purpose and with its own advantages and limitations.
Contrôle Non Destructif des Soudures par Ultrasons
L’inspection pour la qualité des soudures est une application typique du Contrôle Non
Destructif (CND) par ultrason. Que ce soit pour valider les procédés de fabrication ou
pour une inspection systématique des pièces produites, l’inspection par ultrason est une
technique relativement facile à intégrer à la production en ligne avec un impact minimal
sur le débit de production.

La soudure au laser est un procédé de fabrication industriel répandu. À son avantage

cette technique de soudure est très répétable et produit des résultats d’excellente
qualité. Nous présentons dans ce blog l’application de la technique des Ultrasons en
Immersion utilisée au contrôle des soudures pour un système d’engrenage soudé au
laser.

Pour cette application, l’un des défis significatifs a été d’acheminer le signal
ultrasonique aux surfaces jointes. Tel que présenté sur la figure suivante, le couloir à
travers lequel les ultrasons doivent passer est long et étroit. Cette géométrie
particulière réduit significativement la marge d’erreur sur l’angle avec lequel le signal
ultrasonique pénètre le matériel; le contrôle de l’angle de la sonde doit ainsi être précis
afin d’assurer que le faisceau soit et demeure normal à la surface d’entrée. Avec une
déviation trop importante, une partie de la soudure sera masqué et ou déformé par le
relief de la surface d’entré et les résultats seront faussé.
Pour le contrôle des soudures dans un échantillon d’engrenage soudé au laser, nous
avons utilisé une Système TecScan Automatisé spécialement conçu pour le CND par
ultrasons et en immersion. Le système possède une mécanique de précision avec un
contrôle métrologique très serré. De plus, le positionnement des pièces dans la cuve
d’inspection a permis de garantir la qualité et la répétabilité des résultats.

D’autre part, l’inspection proposée devait être en mesure de détecter et de

dimensionner des défauts de petites tailles. Une sonde à plus haute fréquence (20 MHz)
devait être utilisée. Vue la profondeur à laquelle la zone d’inspection se trouve, nous
avons dû faire face à une atténuation du signal de mesure particulièrement élevé (chute
de 50dB). L’amplification requise afin de mesurer d’aussi faibles signaux est
généralement accompagné d’une quantité significative de bruit, rendant la mesure
difficile à accomplir. Cependant, les résultats suivants montrent la possibilité de
détection en utilisant les technologies développées et testées par TecScan afin de
réduire au minimum le niveau de bruit généré par le système. Cela nous permet entre
autres de mesurer avec précisions les signaux de faible amplitude sans ralentir
l’opération du système.
En conclusion, avec une mécanique de précision, un système d’acquisition de mesure
ultrasonique à la fine pointe de la technologie et une sélection appropriée du type de la
sonde, nous avons pu développer une solution d’inspection complète de soudure au
laser dans un engrenage, et ce sans compromis sur la qualité des résultats.
Weld evaluation of brazed camshafts using ultrasonic testing
Ultrasonic Testing of Brazed Joints
Ultrasonic testing (UT) is commonly used to inspect the quality of brazed joints. The process of evaluating brazing
quality is generally simple: using a focused transducer, ultrasonic waves are transmitted at 0° through the part along the
radius of the shaft and focused on the brazed joint. By monitoring the amplitude of the echoes returning from the
brazed joint position, one can evaluate the brazing quality. A weak echo is associated to a strong bond, where most of
the ultrasonic waves travel through the bond. On the other hand, a strong echo means that there is no mechanical
bond, causing the ultrasonic waves to bounce back at the brazed joint interface. A reference sample with a known
unbonded area can be used to set the ultrasonic machine sensitivity and evaluate the amount or percentage of disbond
in the part.

Camshafts
Camshafts are typically manufactured my machining cast iron, forged steel or billets down to the desired shape. Some
manufacturers have started to produce camshafts by joining cams to shafts with a brazed joint. Due to the force being
potentially applied to the brazed joint, a quality control is required to ensure brazing quality and that a sufficient
percentage of cam is solidly brazed to the shaft.

Camshaft geometry
A camshaft is basically a shaft with cams distributed along its length. Cams can come in different shapes with one
common characteristic: there is at least one protuberance found along the circumference of the cams, resulting in an
irregular shape. A common model is a cam with a nose (lobe), where the brazed joint is not parallel to the outer
surface. In such a situation, there is little to no probability of recording an echo from the joint; this is what will be
referred to as the uninspectable area of a cam.
Brazed joint evaluation
It is not always necessary to inspect each individual part of the camshaft to control the quality of a production. A
statistical analysis can be performed on sampled parts taken from the production line. The same logic applies to the
uninspectable area of the cams; a statistical analysis can still be performed by monitoring the percentage of good
brazing within the inspectable portion of the cams. When using ultrasounds to monitor the brazed joint quality, the
evaluation must be normalized to ratio of inspectable area. For example, if the inspectable portion of a cam covers
65% of the circumference and the cam is found to be perfectly bonded, the output of the evaluation must be that the
percentage of good brazed joint is assumed to be 100%.

TecView™ UT: efficient software for camshaft inspection

When inspecting a shaft, the natural and efficient way of performing an automated inspection is to scan along the axis
of the shaft and rotate it by small increments, or to rotate the shaft continuously and index the probe along its axis.
With camshafts, a very large portion of the shaft does not need to be inspected since the cams only cover a small
portion of the shaft. In order to optimize the scan efficiency and minimize scanning time, an adapted scan type that
allows to separate the scanning surface into non-continuous inspection surfaces has been developed. With this tool,
only the cam surface is inspected and the probe indexes from one cam to another.

Only the cam surface is scanned and displayed at the proper position along the shaft. When properly calibrating the
ultrasonic signal sensitivity, lacks of brazing can be identified and sized by applying a detection threshold on the echo
bouncing from the brazed joint. If the probe frequency is high enough and a focused transducer is used, -6dB drop
sizing can be applied. The reference level being provided by the calibrated reference sample.

Running an analysis without considering the inspectable ratio of the cams does not allow to properly estimate the
percentage of welded surface of the full cam. In the above example, 35.9% of the cam surface is not inspectable, as
illustrated by the backwall echo.
If one wishes to estimate the percentage of successful brazing (or lack of brazing) per cam, it is necessary to evaluate
the percentage of inspectable cam section and correct the data. Considering an inspectable ratio of 64.1% (100% –
35.9%), the following data is obtained with TecView™ UT:

This ultrasonic testing method proved to provide a valuable tool for performing statistical analysis during camshaft
production even without complete coverage of the brazed surface between the cams and the shaft.
Dynamic Range Enhancement for Automated
Ultrasonic Testing of Composites
Dynamic range of advanced ultrasonic systems
Aerospace composite materials and structures take many forms, from thin plates to complex 3D shapes. One of the
challenges of inspecting the more complex structures while using ultrasonic systems is to maintain a good SNR in all
portions of the part. This can be particularly problematic when inspecting structures presenting large thickness
variations or different material composition.

Panels bonded to honeycomb cores are good examples of such challenging structures. Ultrasonic testing of these types
of materials is typically performed by transmitting ultrasounds through the thickness of the material (through-
transmission), anomalies being identified by any loss of transmitted signal.

When adjusting the sensitivity of the ultrasonic instrument, the amplitude of the signals transmitted through the material
must be kept below saturation in order to have reference levels for amplitude drop sizing. The attenuation of
ultrasounds is typically very small for a skin-to-skin bond (no honeycomb). Sensitivity (gain) must therefore be kept
low when we need to detect any indications in these structures. On the other hand, the attenuation is naturally high in
honeycomb structures. Inspecting a structure presenting portions with and without honeycomb therefore presents a
challenge to set the instrument sensitivity. Adjusting the gain on the skin material can result in a low contrast and poor
SNR in the honeycomb structure. A high dynamic range (ratio between the largest and smallest meaningful signal
amplitude) is required to detect defects in both sections of the material from a single gain setting.

What dynamic range is needed?

The dynamic range required to inspect a given structure is a function of the variation of attenuation within the structure
and the required SNR. For example, in order to inspect a structure presenting differences of attenuation of 30 dB and
where defects must be detected with a SNR of 16 dB, we will then require a system to have a dynamic range of at
least 46 dB. In practice, a dynamic range as high as 90dB is rarely necessary.

Logarithmic Amplifiers
Logarithmic amplifiers (Log amps) have been widely used to perform ultrasonic testing of composite structures. The
logarithmic amplification increases the dynamic range by performing a non-linear amplification of the ultrasonic signal
in order to output a signal that is linear on a logarithmic scale. In practice, this means that signals of low amplitude are
amplified at a higher dB level than the highest amplitude in the acquired A-Scans. The output of the logarithmic
amplifier is a modified A-Scan which ertical scale is proportional to dB instead of Volts, yet represented on a volt or
%FSH scale. When used by automated ultrasonic testing systems, a logarithmic amplifier allows for the production of
C-Scans that have a high contrast between transmitted signals and the noise baseline. On the other hand, contrasts are
decreased between high and low amplitude transmitted signals. Finer details about the structures are therefore
sacrificed to maintain a high SNR in all areas of the samples. This allows one to inspect the full sample all at once,
without having to re-scan sections of the sample at different gains. Dynamic ranges of such apparatuses are specified
around 90dB, however signals entering the logarithmic amplifier must be extremely low noise, otherwise the resulting
dynamic range is highly compromised. For this reason, narrowband filters centered on the probe frequency are
typically used to remove as much noise as possible from the ultrasonic signals before entering the log amp.

Decibel scaling of numerical data

Before the introduction of numerical data acquisition, decibel scaling of ultrasonic signals was only possible through the
use of logarithmic amplifiers. With data acquisition, converting amplitude to a decibel scale is now an easy task.
However, high resolution data acquisition must be performed in order to obtain a valid dB scale. C-Scans can therefore
be produced on a dB scale as if a logarithmic amplifier was used. However, the vertical resolution of the numerical
acquisition and the electronic noise would limit the dynamic range. As a result, contrast between high and “zero”
amplitude signals is limited by the noise level. For example, if there is a noise baseline of 0.5%, the resulting amplitude
referred to 100% will be -46dB on the decibel scale; this corresponds to the dynamic range of the system. In practice,
similar ranges can be expected to be obtained using acquisition cards of 12 or 14 bits.

In the event that more dynamic range is required, our TecView™ UT software allows one to record ultrasonic data at
different gains. A second C-Scan can therefore be acquired simultaneously at a higher gain; this allows an ease in
increasing the effective dynamic range of the ultrasonic inspection. Two C-Scan images are generated by the process:
one for the lower gain setting and a second for areas where attenuation is more important. Since defect analysis and
sizing must be performed using a reference signal in the vicinity of the detected indication, the analysis of each zone is
done on different C-Scan images.

Comparison between a logarithmic amplifier and numerical acquisition

The example below shows the results of an ultrasonic inspection performed using a 12 bit acquisition card compared to
an inspection performed with a logarithmic amplifier. The inspected sample has a honeycomb structure bonded to
composite plates. Teflon tapes serve to simulate disbonds in the sample. For both inspections, the A-Scan amplitude
was set to 80% of the full screen height at the reference location. This implied reducing the energy of the emitted
pulse until the output signal of the logarithmic amplifier was at 80% of the screen at the reference point.

The images below shows the C-Scan obtained without the logarithmic amplifier by maximizing the echo signal
amplitude in the skin area. The dark blue area represents the honeycomb structure area; this image is a good example
of the poor contrast that results from large attenuation difference within a single sample. Here, there is a difference of
approximately 29 dB between the maximum response from the skin and the response from the honeycomb structure.
 C-Scan of disbonds (linear amplitude scale)

The following images compare the C-Scan obtained using the logarithmic amplifier (left) with the C-Scan obtained by
converting the above C-Scan on a decibel scale (right). It is obvious from these images that the decibel conversion
replicates the effects of the logarithmic amplifier. The color (amplitude level) of the defects is the only visible
difference between both images; the use of the logarithmic amplifier resulted in a better color contrast for the detected
defects. However, the amplitude corresponding to each pixel of the C-Scan obtained with the log amp does not have
any physical meaning unless it is converted to dB; the calibration curve of the logarithmic must be known for this
purpose. Conventional defect sizing (e.g. –X dB drop sizing) can only be achieved on the C-Scan on the right.
 C-Scan with log amp.

C-Scan with gain 1

The log amplifier used during the scan tests was experimentally calibrated creating a table a table of calibration data
from key sample points. This table was applied to the obtained C-Scan in order to convert it to a meaningful C-Scans
with dB scale.
 Calibration curve of the log amp; note the non-linearity of the response near 0dB and below -65 dB

Based on this calibration curve, the C-Scan obtained with the log amp has been converted to a dB scale and compared
to the C-Scan obtained by numerical calculation of the dB scale.

C-Scan log amp in dB

 C-Scan with gain 1

After rectification of the C-Scan on a real dB scale, it becomes apparent that the true dynamic range obtained with the
log amp is not as high as it appeared to be. In this case, the true dynamic range obtained with the log amp is
approximately 36 dB, while it is 44.8 dB on the regular C-Scan (produced from the linear A-Scans). The dB difference
between the honeycomb core and the defect used for the example above is not as important for the scan done with the
log amp (9.9 dB difference) as it is with the regular scan (12.4 dB difference).

It must be noted that the dynamic range obtained with the log amp could have been higher. Our results with the log
amplifier are based on adjusting the reference signal at 80%; looking at the calibration curve of the log amp, we can
see that setting the A-Scan at 80% (0.8Vpp) meant that the reference signal has already been attenuated by
approximately 36 dB. However, if the reference signal had been saturated to 100% of the screen (1 Vpp) instead of
80%, the dynamic range of the log amplifier would have added 16dB bringing the overall increase to 52 dB; this is far
from the specified 90dB amplification and is comparable to the dynamic range obtained with the 12 bit acquisition.

Enhanced dynamic range C-Scan acquisition

The dynamic range can be increased without using a log amp by using a two C-Scans acquired simultaneously but at
different linear gains. Inspection tests were performed on the same sample where the second recorded C-Scan is 29
dB higher. The following results show the two recoded C-Scans. The image on the right shows the decibel scale
representation of this second recorded C-Scan. The signal contrast in the reference area was increased to 35.9 dB in
the second C-Scan (recorded with an additional 29dB). The dynamic range therefore was increased from
approximately 44.8 dB to 68.3dB for the combined C-Scans.
 C-Scan with gain 1

C-Scan gain 2 (additional 29 dB)

The dynamic range resulting from the dual gain approach is therefore well adapted to the part being inspected. In
addition, it allows us to perform quantitative dB drop sizing without requiring any special calibration curves. With this
approach, the recorded signals for the C-Scans are linear and the benefits of the logarithmic amplifier are reproduced
without its negative aspects: – difficulty to interpret the amplitude information -the high sensitivity to electronic noise -
the necessity to limit the bandwidth of the logarithmic amplifier around the probe frequency.
Automated Contour Following for NDT Ultrasonic Testing of
Large Aerospace Parts
The introduction of automated ultrasonic testing has benefited the nondestructive testing (NDT) field in terms of
increased inspection speed, imaging capabilities and repeatability. Ultrasonic immersion tanks and squirter systems are
well suited for flaw detection of large aerospace parts.

Complex shaped aerospace parts that present inclined, curved or multiple surfaces require more advanced scanning
schemes in order to be inspected properly. Contour surface following capabilities represents an interesting scanning
option to inspect the whole part as a single surface since it provides a controlled and repeatable way of performing the
required inspection. However, its realization is very challenging as it requires multi-axis robotic manipulators with
advanced tridimensional scanning capabilities. In addition, such manipulator solution must provide accurate transducer
positioning with high-precision and repeatability.

Contour Following
In the context of ultrasonic inspection, contour following can be described as a scanner’s ability to do a controlled
displacement of one or multiple axes, with the objective to move around a curved, round or inclined surface with
constant transducer orientation and distance (water path). When performing an ultrasonic inspection with large
immersion or squirter system, the orientation of the transducer must be controlled with a high degree of precision in
order to follow the part contour adequately. Of course, this must be accomplished without any collisions between the
scanning head and the inspected part.

Defining the Contour Following Path

Before an inspection is performed with contour following, the displacement path of the scanner’s axes must be
properly defined in order to obtain constant water column and transducer angle. We also need to accurately know the
inspected surface position. To define the part or part surface we can either use a computer-aided design (CAD) file or
by teaching the part surface point-by-point. The part teaching approach, is often referred to as a Teach and Learn. In
both cases, coordinates and orientation (normal vectors) of points on the part surface must sufficiently be sampled.
 Setup of TecView™ 3D for contour following

After a proper sampling of the desired area has been done, interpolation is performed to predict the position of the part
surface between the recorded coordinates and to calculate a valid path trajectory for the scanner’s axes.

Validation of the Contour Following Path

An important step in the definition of the part contour is the validation of the scanner’s displacement path in the
interpolated areas, which can be done by comparing the deviation of the water path and incidence angle with regards
to an acceptable error. While moving around the contour, a visual alarm can be set to advise the operator of deviations
beyond this acceptable error. While water path deviations can be monitored from the time-of-flight of surface echoes,
validating the incidence angle requires an indirect measurement. Setting a tolerance on the amplitude variations of the
surface echo recorded at 0-degree incidence represents an efficient way of monitoring errors in the surface contour
orientation; a large variation in the amplitude of the surface echo may indicate that the incidence angle at that location
is not 0 degrees. If either alarm is triggered, a verification of the incidence angle can be done at the problematic
locations and surface coordinates can be added or modified to increase the part definition accuracy.

Calculation of Axes Trajectories

After the part contour has been defined and validated, contour following algorithms can be used to calculate the axes
trajectories covering the complete part contour without any risk of collisions. TecView 3D maps the selected part
surfaces to the appropriate scanner axes and creates a 2D parametric space that defines the surface. The 2D surface
can be defined in multiple ways from the defined surface contour (extrusion, angular revolution, rotational symmetry).
 Examples of CAD geometry extraction and parameterization in TecView™ 3D
Starting with good scanner metrological alignment conditions, reliable 3D contour following performances are then
obtained with excellent transducer positional accuracy and repeatability.
Part Positioning for Contour Following Inspection
Part positioning is achieved the same way a contour definition is done, i.e. by recording a set of points that defines the
surface. Part surface is located according to the water path measured by an interface gate placed over the Front wall
echo. Points are acquired at different location on the surface to construct a point cloud, and an automatic repositioning
tool is used to fit the pre-defined surface to the point cloud. Manual positioning tools are also located within the surface
reposition control box.

TecView 3D automatic positioning tool

Contour Following Inspection Results

The example presented below demonstrates how a 3D contour following scanning solution and automated UT testing
are being used to perform inspections of fan blades and fan cases. The first figure shows an example of a C-scan
image obtained on a sample composite fan blade containing disbonds. These were created with Teflon inserts between
the layers of the composite blade. The C-scan result represents a color-coded 3D presentation of the data collected
during an automated inspection of the blade. The red spots on the C-scans represent the detected disbonds defects.
Similarly, the adjacent figure displays a C-scan with defects obtained from a tested engine fan case sample.

C-Scan image of sample engine fan blade

 C-Scan image of sample engine fan case

Turbine Blade Inspection

Turbine blades used in aircraft engines and power generation systems are designed with internal air cooling channels
which allow the blades to operate under extremely high temperatures. Thickness variation at the cooling channels
which is caused by bad machining repair or surface wear during operation can affect the blade temperature which
would impact its overall strength. Therefore, to ensure structural integrity of the turbine blades, it is important to control
the material thickness at the channels position.

WALL THICKNESS MEASUREMENT

Nondestructive ultrasonic testing is commonly used to evaluate the blade wall thickness at the channels positions. To
achieve this task we typically use thickness measurements instruments with contact ultrasonic probes. This manual
thickness measurement approach can be both time consuming and subject to human error.

For proper wall thickness measurement of multiple turbine blades, an automated scanning system is desirable. In this
case, local or total immersion of the blade is necessary to measure the thickness without contact. The automated
immersion system will allow us to precisely control and adjust the angle of the ultrasonic beam. With such automated
system, wall thickness measurements of the blades can be done at specific locations (point by point), or by performing
C-Scan thickness mapping of the blade surface.
 TecView multi-point wall thickness measurements

IMMERSION SCANNER

TecScan’s ultrasonic immersion scanner is used to measure wall thickness of turbine blades. The scanner is fully
automated and piloted by TecView™ for data acquisition and analysis. The immersion scanner is also equipped with
an automated probe manipulator. Depending on the orientation of the turbine blade in the immersion tank, the
manipulator head can be used a swivel-gimbal or gimbal-gimbal.
 Immersion Ultrasonic Testing Scanner

POINT-BY-POINT CONTROL

For point-by-point thickness control, the specific discrete wall thickness measurements points of the blade are recorded
in a proper sequence. This can easily be achieved using the Point-by-point scan type of the TecView™ software. In
this case, the operator manually programs the location of each measurement point with the optimal probe orientation on
a reference blade. Multiple blades of the same model can then be automatically controlled and the data for
thickness/location is saved along with the serial number of the blade.
Thickness is measured at different positions on the blades by setting up gates on the front and backwall echoes

C-SCAN THICKNESS MAPPING

Wall thickness measurement of turbine blades can also be achieved from C-Scan thickness mapping. Using contour or
surface following scans in TecView, full thickness mapping can be performed on large areas of the blades. The
advantage of this approach is to eliminate uncertainties related to the blade’s channels positions as well as to detect
any structural imperfections, including cracks and inclusions.

In TecView, the surface of the turbine blade can be constructed by extruding the contour from at a proper section of
the blade, as illustrated below. With properly defined blade contour, an ultrasonic C-Scan could be performed with
stable water path and probe orientation along the blade length.
Construction of the blade contour using ultrasounds in TecView
 C-Scan results of turbine blade using TecView

The above C-Scan results clearly show all the cooling channels as well as their depth relative to the full thickness. The
dark blue lines running from left to right of the C-Scan represent the holes in the blade. Variations in depth of the holes
and of the full thickness can also be observed by color variations in the thickness mapping. Such a representation
allows measuring the thickness at any point of the C-Scan.

Superposition of the C-Scan image and a picture of the blade showing the approximate coverage of the C-
Scan thickness mapping

Alternatively, turbine blades that present a more complex surface curvature can be inspected using the CAD import
option of the TecView™ 3D software. In this case, the CAD model of the blade replaces the extruded contour and
provides the orientation of the surface that is necessary to define the probe displacements and orientation.
Ultrasonic Testing Solution for Inspection of Aluminum Cast
Molding Blocks

Cast aluminum molding plates or blocks are frequently used for large molds requiring extensive machining applications.
They are characterized by excellent dimensional accuracy, stability and strength. Such casting technology uses direct
chill (DC) vertical casting process to form precisely the aluminum ingot to the preferred plate/block size instead of hot
rolling a thicker ingot down to thick plates size.

When using the DC-casting process for the production of larger aluminum ingots, plates and blocks, stringent quality
control is required during and after the fabrication process to detect any stress crack defects and porosities.

Ultrasonic testing
Ultrasonic testing has several advantages for detecting and characterizing aluminum casting defects located in the
material volume. These advantages include high probability of defects detection, inspection automation and less
hazardous to environment compared to other non-destructive testing techniques.
Automated Inspection System
An automated ultrasonic system was designed to inspect aluminum cast plates and cast blocks. Such unique system is
used to certify precision Aluminum Casting products by detecting defects in aluminum blocks up to 30’’ in thickness.
Its detection level is such that it is capable of finding defects >0.04 inches in size.

The system configuration consists of a 2 axis scanner (X, Y) integrated in a carriage robot which can easily be driven
by the inspector. The system houses all required electronics, a workstation, as well as 8 channels ultrasonic system.
An array of 8 ultrasonic probes is also integrated to the system and attached to the X-axis of the system. TecView™
UT software package is used to perform the full ultrasonic inspection and calibration. Complete inspection reports are
automatically generated with the recorded data for traceability of each inspected sample/block.
Testing Results
The aluminum cast plates and cast blocks samples were provided by PCP Canada for system development and
procedure validation. Several aluminum blocks were inspected at very low scanning resolution and successful
detection of natural voids was demonstrated with 100% coverage of the aluminum block, as presented below in the C-
Scan. TecView™ UT display of A, B and C-Scan acquired on the cast aluminum block, simulated defects (FBH)
appear as bright/red pixels in the C-Scan image.

Scanning direction
C-Scan results – TecView
Advanced nondestructive testing

Non-destructive testing (NDT) is crucial to the verification of the integrity of engine

components for both MRO providers and manufacturing companies. It provides MRO
technicians and aerospace engineers with the appropriate input to perform quality
control, root-cause failure analysis or component design optimisation.
Automated Ultrasonic Testing: Transducer Squint Angle
Correction

Ultrasonic Testing technique uses ultrasonic transducers to perform non-destructive manual and automated testing.
Such transducers are typically designed to generate a sound beam at a specific angle with regards to the transducer
casing. For immersion transducers, the ultrasonic beam generated by the transducer element is expected to be
centered on the main axis of the transducer. In practice, it is almost impossible to build a transducer with a perfectly
aligned sound beam; the angular deviation of the beam with regards to the expected direction is called the Squint angle.
This angle represents one of the many characteristics of ultrasonic transducers.

According to the European standard for transducer evaluation (EN 12668-2), the squint angle of a transducer must be
below 2 degrees in order to meet the code requirements. Now let’s assume that a probe has a high, yet acceptable
squint angle of 1.8 degrees. If it is used to inspect an aluminum part (c = 6.15 mm/µs) in water (c = 1.48 mm/µs) and
the probe is mechanically set to aim the part at an angle of 0 degrees, then the angle of the ultrasonic beam will be 1.8
degrees. Based on Snell’s refraction principle, this means that the waves will propagate at an angle of 7.5 degrees
below the surface of the aluminum material. As a result, a simple task such as measuring the thickness of a material
becomes extremely erratic. It is therefore current practice for ultrasonic testing to correct for the squint angle in order
to emit the ultrasonic beam at the correct angle.
 Transducer squint angle

Squint angle in material

Automated Ultrasonic Testing

Automated Ultrasonic Testing requires a precise 0 degrees alignment of the ultrasonic beam to the desired point of
incidence / point of inspection. Therefore, to control the transducer angle, we must correct for the squint angle and for
possible transducer casing misalignment. Regardless of the source of deviation, the squint angle must be taken into
consideration when performing ultrasonic testing. Failing to correct for the squint angle leads to unpredictable beam
angle inside the test piece.
 Transducer squint angle (corrected)

Transducer squint angle (uncorrected)

Squint angle correction

When performing ultrasonic testing of flat samples in pulse-echo, the squint angle is simply corrected by
optimizing/varying the transducer’s angle to maximize the amplitude of echo signals. Optimizing the amplitude of the
echo signals guarantees the normality of the ultrasonic beam with the entry surface. However, such a correction is
more challenging when performing automated ultrasonic testing of parts with complex geometries where transducer
contour-following and 3D scans are required. In this case, it is the movement of all axes that must be corrected in
order to ensure the proper ultrasonic beam entry angle.

In order to perform squint angle correction, pulse-echo measurements are performed on a flat calibrated reference to
evaluate the direction of the central axis of the sound beam. The directivity of the ultrasonic beam is measured by
comparing the angle of the transducer with the known angle of the reference sample. The obtained value is then input
to the 3D contour following software (TecView™ 3D), which can calculate axes displacement paths that ensure a
constant and optimal ultrasonic beam entry angle along the surface of the tested part.
Ultrasonic C-Scan Imaging for Evaluating the Integrity of
Brazed Parts
Ultrasonic Testing and C-Scan imaging represents a powerful NDT technique for testing the integrity of metallic
brazed parts. Metal-to-metal brazing solutions are found in key sectors such as the aerospace, automotive and nuclear
industries, where high quality components are manufactured with increased strength, fatigue tolerance, corrosion and
oxidation resistance.

Brazing is a well-known method for bonding two metallic parts. As opposed to welding where metals are melted to
create a bond, brazing is done by melting a filler metal into the metal-to-metal joint . Once liquefied, the filler metal
wets the surface and flows into the designed tight gap between the parts by capillary action, creating a strong bond
between the parts.

The integrity of the brazed joint depends on the proper wetting of the gap created by the filler metal. In brazed joints,
void defects can be formed in the bonded area due to lack of brazing or incomplete wetting which can lead to early
component failure and poor performance.

Ultrasonic C-Scan for Braze Bond Testing

Voids in the bond area can be detected by monitoring the ultrasonic echoes reflected from the bond between the two
materials. When performing ultrasonic pulse-echo testing on a brazed part, the amplitude of the echo provides the
indications from the voids while the C-Scan shows the voids sizes and total area, thus revealing the overall bond
quality.

Weak echo (low amplitude):

A good bonding in the brazed area results will provide Weak echo since the ultrasounds can easily transmit from one
material to another.
 Typical Echo from good bonded brazed joint

Strong echo (high amplitude):

A lack of mechanical bonding in the brazed area results, will provide strong echoes from the interface of the brazed
area. The echoes represent reflections from voids created due to lack of brazing.

A Typical Echo from bad bonded brazed joint

To perform complete inspection of a brazed joint for aerospace components or industrial parts: automated, immersion
ultrasonic testing is used, providing C-Scan images and accurate bond quality evaluation.

Brazed Silver-Copper Electrical Switching Contacts

A series of silver-copper samples presenting voids in the metal-to-metal brazing was inspected using immersion
ultrasonic testing and compared to a metallurgical analysis, performed after precision ground (smoothing of the
surface) to reveal the voids. As a reference, the diameter of the parts is approximately 15 mm.
Comparison of metallurgical analysis and corresponding C-Scan images of voids within a silver-copper brazed
joint

Ultrasonic Testing: Defect-Sizing in Composite Structures

Ultrasonic Testing (UT) method is frequently used for non-destructive testing of
aerospace structures and components. When inspecting structures made of composite
materials, ultrasonic testing provides high-resolution C-Scan images which are used to
locate and size defects. The -6 dB drop technique is often applied to the ultrasonic
pulse-echo or through transmission C-Scan results in order to perform 2D defect sizing.
For the case of ultrasonic testing of composite structures in through-transmission, defect
sizing require selecting a reference area from the C-Scan image with relatively constant
signal amplitudes and free of defects. However, selecting such a baseline reference is
difficult to achieve due to the natural amplitude variation caused by the fiber matrix of
composites as well as the presence of small indications or else.

Ultrasonic Testing (UT) method is frequently used for non-destructive testing of

aerospace composite structures. Defect-Sizing in these structures using simple -6 dB
amplitude drop technique is difficult to achieve.

When scanning a composite structure at a high frequency, the internal fiber matrix can be
observed in the form of amplitude variation of the ultrasonic waves. The following
example shows a 0-90° carbon fiber reinforced plate (CFRP) scanned using an
ultrasonic gantry system in through-transmission setup where we can clearly see the
fiber alignments.
Multi-channel Flatbed Ultrasonic Squirter System for
Inspection of Large Aerospace Composite Panels
Non-destructive testing of aerospace composite parts is most commonly achieved using
ultrasonic inspection technologies. While component presenting complex geometries
may require dedicated scanning technologies, many aerospace parts are made of
composite materials in a panel-like shapes, presenting flat or only slightly curved
surfaces. Through-Transmission Ultrasonic testing represents the method of choice to
perform non-destructive inspection of such parts.

Through-Transmission Ultrasonic testing represents the method of choice to perform

non-destructive inspection of large aerospace panels made of composite materials.

Through-transmission inspection can quickly reveal the presence of discontinuities

inside an inspected part. This is done by monitoring the transmitted signal for amplitude
losses. Large flat or semi-flat panels can be inspected in a simple raster scan pattern by
synchronizing the movement of both the emitting and receiving probe. High resolution
C-Scan images can be generated from the ultrasonic waves transmitted through the
inspected composite panels.
 C-Scan results of composite panel
While the scanning rate of such inspections can be very high, inspection time can suffer
from panels with large dimensions. The scanning indexes performed at the end of each
scan line, can have a non-negligible impact on the overall scanning time. An efficient
way to maximize the scanning rate is to minimize the amount of indexes using multi-
channel scanning technology with multiple ultrasonic probes. Instead of moving a single
pair of probes across the surface of the parts, arrays of probes are used in pairs to scan
across the inspected panel, the elements of the emitting array being fired simultaneously
or one after the other. This not only saves the time that would have been lost during scan
indexing, but could potentially cut the inspection time by a factor corresponding to the
number of elements of the probes array.
 8 channel flatbed system for rapid inspection of large composite parts
One of the limitations of using multiple probes, which must be overcome, is the probes
response uniformity within the array of probes. Array normalization tools are required
to obtain a uniform response from all the probes and generate C-Scans that are
equivalent to what would be obtained in a conventional single channel system.
 Through-transmission C-Scan of 0-90° CFRP
Therefore, it is not the highest nor the lowest amplitude of a defect-free area that best
represents the normal ultrasonic response from the material, but rather the average
response. And so, if one tries to perform defect sizing based on the -6dB points using
the maximum amplitude of a defect-free reference area from a composite structure with
visible fibers in the C-Scan, the detected defects will be oversized. The following is an
example of defect-oversizing situation in a woven composite structure, where a
Teflon® insert of 25x25mm is detected and visible in the C-Scan (scan resolution of
~1.5 mm x 1.5 mm).

Defect-sizing using reference area maximum amplitude

The above result shows defect oversizing when we select the maximum amplitude to
apply the 6dB drop sizing. The defect size was overestimated by ~20% on each side. A
better approach consists of using the average amplitude of a local reference area, which
represents the average response of the inspected structure. The following example
shows a significant improvement and close to accurate sizing of the detected defect.
 Defect-sizing using reference area average amplitude
Furthermore robust approach for defect-sizing in this situation, is to use the C-Scan
Histogram in order to establish the appropriate reference amplitude level which
represents the “normal” or median value of the amplitude response returned by the
material.

Histogram of C-Scan from ultrasonic testing of composite structure

The advantage of the Histogram approach over the average response of a selected
reference area is to remove the inconsistency which may result from an improper
selection of a reference area in the C-Scan by the operator. In addition, the Histogram
approach is not affected by small variations in the C-Scan such as low amplitude
indications from smaller defects, noise or amplitude drops caused by water jet
scanning.

Defect-sizing using C-Scan Histogram

Automated Phased Array Testing
Phased array testing and imaging, one of the most advanced means of ultrasonic testing method used in modern NDT
science. It is becoming quite common and well-rounded ultrasonic testing technique, designed to increase flaw
delectability and to perform ultrasonic C-scan inspection on the fly. Phased array technology offers means to focus the
ultrasonic beam at different locations and steer it to reach flaws at hidden parts of industrial structures, hence,
substantially reducing the scanning time and simplifying the inspection pattern by scanning electronically in milliseconds
instead of scanning mechanically in a few seconds.

When inspection cycle time and defect/data interpretation represent important factors, phased arrays are usually
combined with automated multi-axis scanning systems creating powerful and fast ultrasonic inspection solution. Such
solution is rapidly becoming as popular for many NDT applications and especially for weld testing and aerospace
applications where ultrasonic inspection systems with rapid and reliable flaw detection are required.

Phased array immersion tank

 Phased array-Gimbal/Gimbal

Phased array inspection of composites

Automated immersion system with phased array was designed to inspect aerospace composite parts. Linear and
curved arrays are used to rapidly cover the inspection of the entire part. This turnkey solution consists of an ultrasonic
immersion scanner, a phased array instrument and an array probe, TecView™ software with contour following
capabilities for motion control and phased array data acquisition, management and analysis. Amplitude and time-of-
flight C-scans are presented below from composites curved radii test sample with known defects. Three sections of
the sample were tested: straight section, curved and inner radius section. The following tests were performed on the
curved section and on the ID inner radius section. The flat and curved sections were inspected with 0 degree 64
elements linear array, however, the inner radius section was inspected with curved linear arrays of 64 elements. The
automated immersion scanner provided constant array to sample-water path and accurate array positioning, aligning
the ultrasonic beams at 90 degrees to the part surface and allowing complete inspection of the sample.
 Curved radii sample

Scan of curved section

 C-scan-radii section

Conclusions
Combining the phased array probes and the motion accuracy of the automated immersion scanner, an optimized and
complete ultrasonic inspection solution was created. This automated phased array solution provided a rapid inspection
setup with few array passes.

Applications which require rapid coverage of large areas, inspection solutions for slightly curved geometries or
relatively increased ultrasonic penetration can all be met with an automated phased array scanners could meet these
challenges. However, for parts with more complex geometries; parts with complicated curvatures and surfaces as well
as free form shapes that do not have any axis of symmetry, automated tridimensional dimensional scanning solution
would be a better option.
Solving NDT Demands with the Right Products
TecScan offers a wide array of NDT solutions and software designed to cover the
aerospace, industrial and oil & gas industries. For nondestructive manual testing, our
clients quite often know what they need, since companies in this field have an extensive
background in NDT, as a supplier we do not usually need to walk them through which
system and software combination is most important. In this case we may only have input
as to what our best possible offer is to our clients demands. Whereas, clients looking
for new NDT solutions in order to test structures with advanced technologies such as;
new aircraft with integrated composite materials or complex aircraft engines
components with new inspection challenges, thus instead of relying on conventional
NDT inspection technologies, we must provide case specific and custom solutions.
When such clients contact us in need of a solution; they aren’t always sure what they
need in terms of both software and hardware. Our expertise allows us to assess the
necessary NDT solution and also supply it.

In the case that a client is unsure what to purchase but knows what object must undergo
NDT, we must ask ourselves the following questions: Which industry are we supplying?
What is the volume of products being tested? What are the types and sizes of the defects
we need to detect? What is the company’s budget?

For Example: An automated gantry system would be recommended over an immersion

system primarily based on the size of the tested objects. Gantry systems are versatile
and well suited for automated testing of aerospace structures which are made of
composite materials. Such gantries use ultrasonic probes with water squirter systems,
articulated gimbals and turntables to reach difficult corners on the inspected parts.
Therefore while still using water as a medium, the Gantry systems only apply water to
the inspected points.
 Side-Arms Gantry system
On the other hand 3D immersion systems are recommended for relatively smaller but
still complex parts with curvatures. This series of systems are commonly recommended
for manufacturers requiring very high detection reliability, resolution and repeatability.
Our standard TSIS series tanks or the custom design solutions depend on whether the
object is a simpler or more complex geometric shape, respectively.

Our signature software TecView™ comes in different forms also. For example, we
would suggest our TecView™ 3D for applications which require full tridimensional
and arbitrary motions of the system. Such a capability is among the most complex and
demanding in terms of both electronics and software development efforts. TecView™
3D allows users to import CAD files of the inspected parts, teach and learn the parts,
perform full 3D inspections as well as generate accurate inspection C-scan images for
analysis and interpretation.
We also would suggest our TecView™ EC software instead of our TecView™ UT
software if the sole goal of the system is to test for damages on the surface of the
material. Eddy Current testing is mainly used for subsurface crack detection in
conductive material. In the case of ultrasonic testing, internal flaws are detected and C-
scan images are created to map materials as a whole.

All software’s can be paired with any system and since the collective ensemble is all
TecScan made, under a true manufacturer, they are easily compatible. If issues do occur
on our clients end, it is a simple to contact TecScan support, all major components
come from TecScan, and therefore TecScan would have all the necessary resources to
apply any sort of repairs, assistance and even tutorials.
NDT Software Solutions to Empower Automated NDT
Systems
Nondestructive (NDT) software represents an essential element of an NDT system. It
provides inspectors with the necessary tools to collect and analyze the required NDT
data. TecScan has developed some premier NDT software suites, which are designed to
be the solution to any NDT scenario. These NDT software solutions focus not only on
being efficient but also very user friendly. In this blog we’ll take a look at software that
best exemplifies the software capabilities of TecView™: TecView™ 3D.

TecView™ 3D is an NDT software designed for real-time automated ultrasonic

inspections of complex parts. The software offers basic and advanced contour
following capabilities. The basic contour following capability is perfectly suited for
extruded parts or similar structures, while the advanced contour following option is
designed to permit automated inspection of more complex parts in full 3D.

Basic contour following means the software in question, TecViewTM 3D, can
automatically scan extruded parts with simple curvature (bodies of symmetry), and then
manipulate the scans using the full range of TecView™ UT analysis tools. Each scan
pass is typically performed in a straight motion and along a single axis, while a multi-
axis indexing is done at the end of each scan pass in order to follow the part curvature.
Scans can also be performed along a simple curved or inclined surface using multiple
axes.

As for the advanced contour following, at least two rotational axes are required to
perform a full 3D contour following. The linear axes serve to move the inspection
probe at the proper locations while the rotational axes are used to maintain the proper
ultrasonic wave entry angle. TecViewTM 3D also allows you to import the CAD files
of the inspected parts or to manually teach the part geometry so the system can generate
inspection trajectories. TecView TM 3D will also performs complete validation of the
generated or calculated trajectories, taking into account the necessary inspection water
path (distance between the probe and inspected sample), probe angle and the
mechanical limits of the system.

TecView 3D illustration of the calculated trajectories

With the data stored and tagged, the analysis of the collected data may be preformed in
the ANALYSIS module. Partial or full C-Scan in addition to A-Scan and B-Scan images
are obtained with a click of the mouse. The C-Scans can be obtained based on
amplitude information, TOF or thickness. Signal and image filtering, as well as rotation,
inversion and 3D projection can be performed on the C-Scans.

The following figure shows an example of the results obtained on an L-shapes, curved
composite material sample with simulated disbonds.

TecView 3D C-Scan results of composite sample with simulated disbonds

In conclusion, TecScan’s software suite not only reaches maximum efficiency on a
current task, but also creates efficiency for any future actions, be it the diagnostics of a
scan or an automated scan in the near future. With a wide selection of software brands,
TecViewTM modules can be chosen to match the testers needs

Inspection of Composite Materials in

Aerospace Applications
The use of composite materials is widespread and still growing especially in the aerospace industry. Currently, aircraft
designers are using significant amounts of composite materials for the design of airframe and engine components.
Such a design solution provides significant weight reduction, reduced fuel consumption and improved engine durability.
Another advantage is that composite materials can be formed into more complex shapes than their metallic
counterparts, making them hard to inspect for manufacturing anomalies or defects.

TecView CAD import of composite sample

The use of NDT for composites

The safety nature of aircraft critical components and their reliability requirements entail rigorous non-destructive
testing for the evaluation and detection of any defects. Non-destructive ultrasonic testing (UT) is the most widely
used technique for testing composite materials for both manufacturing and in-service defects such as porosities,
disbonds, voids and delaminations. UT testing of composite materials have several advantages: it can detect and
characterize small defects by testing in through-transmission or pulse-echo modes, the UT results can be presented in
color coded C-Scans and can be produced by combining the ultrasonic instrument and the probe along with an
automated Cartesian robots or squirters gantry systems.
 Panel of composite materials

C-Scan inspection results

NDT Inspection Challenges

The biggest challenge is to perform NDT inspections of complex composite parts and structures which have
complicated curvatures, surfaces and free form shapes that do not have any axis of symmetry while having varying
thicknesses.
 Aircraft engine composite fan blade

Solution
To overcome the above mentioned challenges, highly Automated and Multi-axes UT systems are used in
combination with advanced full 3D motion control solution designed to allow the scanner to follow the complex-
curvatures of the composite parts. This 3D Scanning Solution allows inspectors to import CAD files of the inspected
parts, perform 3D inspection and generate accurate C-Scan images for analysis and interpretation of the scanning
results.

Multi-axes UT system
 Immersion UT system

The 3D scanning is achieved with the motion control and data acquisition software and
based on inputs of the CAD files of the inspected part. The software of the automated
UT system starts by associating the inspected part surfaces to the appropriate axes, then
it creates virtual orthogonal scanning axes on the surfaces in a parametric space where a
rectangular grid is defined. The system then generates the appropriate trajectories
allowing accurate 3D probe positioning along the calculated scanning paths while being
aligned with the axes of the calculated rectangular grid.
CAD sample with orthogonal axes

Calculated scan trajectories

The example presented below demonstrate how 3D scanning solution and automated UT
testing are being used to perform the challenging task of inspecting composite materials
with complex shapes and geometries.

C-Scan results of engine fan blade

C-Scan results of engine fan case

Conclusions
The challenge of inspecting composite parts can be overcome with the use of automated multi-axes 3D scanning
systems. By considering part surface curvatures, thicknesses and UT wave propagation, defect detection can be
achieved in parts where conventional inspections would require multiple setups, be impractically long or simply fail to
the task.
Automated Thickness Measurements Of High Pressure Aero-
Engine Turbine Blades
Turbine blades are investment casting engine components which are critical to the
operation of the aircraft. These blades are produced to be light/thin and also
strong/durable. Their critical nature requires accurate inspection after casting in order
to confirm minimum allowable material thickness throughout the entire structure of the
blade and ensure the proper alignment of their cooling channels.

Example Turbine Blade

An automated thickness measurement solution is being developed using a 6-axis polar
coordinates robot fitted with custom grippers, a laser positioning system and an
ultrasonic water jet system to perform repeatable automated thickness measurements. A
software module has been also developed and integrated in TecViewTM UT to enable
the import of the blade CAD model and to provide repeatable positioning of the
inspection points on the blades.
 Epson Polar Robot
Turbine blade thickness measurements are typically conducted manually; this type of
inspection is usually not highly repeatable and very time consuming. An automated
solution offers an overall reduction in inspection time, while ensuring that the
inspection scans are always conducted in a repeatable manner. In addition, ultrasonic
signals used for thickness measurement are recorded and stored for each monitored
blade position.
 TecView – thickness measurement module

The TecView™ UT inspection software manages the thickness measurement and data
recording aspects; it is used to set, save and load the ultrasonic parameter settings, to
record and analyse ultrasonic signal and report thickness measurement data. The
developed solution also uses our standalone ProScan UT instrument, a 60 MHz
broadband ultrasonic pulser/receiver.

Inspection of the blade starts by loading the designated inspection points, each blade is
then gripped and accurately positioned over the ultrasonic probe that uses a water jet
system. Once all inspection points are validated, the robot starts a continuous inspection
sequence triggering the UT instrument and the acquisition for each point. Point by point,
the data is collected and from each acquired signal, the blade thickness is calculated
from the ToF information. At the end of the sequence, a file containing all measurements
from the inspection points is produced. With the developed solution, several tests were
performed on real blade samples to perform automated thickness measurements.

The inspection results obtained during these trials showed perfect thickness
measurement reproducibility and robot repeatability. With this inspection solution, we
can use a standard commercially available robot which can be integrated into turbine
blades production facility ensuring high production throughput by dramatically reducing
the blades inspection time.
Ultrasonic velocity calibration curve
Challenges of Performing Automated Ultrasonic Inspection
Automated Ultrasonic Inspection is widely used for flaw detection in aerospace
components and large structures. When performing such automated non-destructive
testing, several requirements and parameters need to be controlled in very precise way.
One of the important requirements for reliable automated ultrasonic inspection is to
maintain a constant probe angle during inspection. For example, ultrasonic inspection
of materials requires constant 0-degrees of the probe during the entire inspection time.

Another parameter which needs to be adequately controlled is the probe distance; the
distance between the probe and the tested part. Such distance represents the delay line
or the water-path. When inspection of parts is performed in an automated immersion
tank, the water-path is carefully maintained at constant distance from the surface of the
tested piece in order to obtain a consistent beam focus throughout the material depth.
Components and parts with complex geometries having inclined, curved or multiple
surfaces are generally inspected using Automated Immersion Systems or Squirter/
Gantry Systems using advanced contour following or 3D inspection techniques. With
such highly automated systems, additional parameters need to be controlled and
optimized in order to achieve proper inspection of parts. Accurate system motion
control is required to minimize errors in positioning the system axes, parameters related
to the system mechanical alignment, as well as the accuracy, backlash and
reparability of the system axes need to be optimized in order to control the probe/wave
incidence angle and water-path. All of these parameters must be properly controlled
and kept within acceptable ranges depending on the inspection application.

System alignment:

System alignment is directly related to the final performances of the automated system.
The challenge is to achieve values which would guarantee minimum stability in the
probe alignment versus the tested part. The required performances are also related to
the application; while contour and advanced 3D inspection require high mechanical
performances on every aspect, however, simpler applications may only require basic
alignment principles to be followed.

The following graphics show some alignment performances of large automated

immersion tank designed to achieve typical detection performances.
Probes alignment:

Maintaining probe to part (in pulse-echo) and probe to probe alignment (in through-
transmission) is of even of a greater importance when performing advanced contour
following and 3D scanning than it is for simpler flat panel scanning. Large deviations in
the perpendicularity between axes motion or in the accuracy of rotational axes can be
the source of important probe misalignment while performing complex motion.

Examples of probe to probe misalignment resulting from inaccurate positioning.

 probe to probe alignment

misalignment resulting from inaccurate positioning

Examples of Complex 900 ultrasonic flange inspection of aircraft fan case made of
composite materials: probe to probe misalignment resulting from inaccurate axes
positioning; accurate inspection of flanges greatly relies on maintaining probe alignment
throughout the full ~90° rotation required to cover a flange radius.
System motion control:

The quality of the motion control also plays an important role at various levels. In basic
scanning applications, the positioning error at the end of a scanner motion has a direct
impact on the indexing accuracy of the system and on the ability to move the probe back
to a specific position. On the other hand, 3D scanning also require to minimize axes
positioning error during scanner motion; this is mandatory due to the need to
synchronize the motion of multiple axes in order to move the probe along an accurate
3D path.
Automated Ultrasonic Inspection of Brazed Joints in
Helicopter Engine Turbine Nozzle
MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) activities for engine services and
modifications are witnessing increasing demand for the commercial and military
aerospace. The helicopter engine turbines and it components are subject to regular and
mandatory MRO activities to maintain flight safety. The turbine nozzle, an important and
sensitive component, which is located at the turbine’s combustion stage, is exposed to a
considerable amount of heat. This exposure could affect its integrity and in most cases
will create cracks in the brazed joints which are designed to hold the nozzle assembly.
Fractures and voids in brazing are known to pose a serious threat to flight safety and
therefore need to be properly detected. This problem is solved by using non-destructive
ultrasonic testing (UT) in an automated immersion tank.

Challenges

The UT inspection of the brazed joints of the nozzle assembly poses three main
challenges:

– Accessibility of the brazed joint due to the turbine nozzle complex part geometry

– UT inspection with good near surface resolution; typically needs to be in the vicinity of
0.030” for proper void/fracture detection

– Proper void/crack sizing requires high precision scanning

Solution

UT inspection using high frequency probes is used to detect and produce C-Scan map of
defects; voids and cracks in the brazed joints. A TecScan’s 6-axes automated ultrasonic
immersion system was used to develop the inspection procedure. A focused transducers
equipped with mirrors as well as side-looking probes was also selected and mounted on
the z-axis of the system. The nozzle component was installed on a a high-precision
turntable, which allowed us to perform high resolution C-Scan maps of the joint.
TecViewTM software was used to control the immersion system and provide final
analysis results.
Results

The helicopter engine turbine nozzle samples were provided by Vector Aerospace for
system demonstration and procedure validation. Nozzles were inspected at a resolution
of 0.010” and successful detection of natural voids was demonstrated with 100%
coverage of the brazed joint, as presented below in the C-Scan.

TecView™ UT display of A, B and C-Scan acquired on the brazed joint (Area 2) of one
of Vector Aerospace sample (scale is not 1:1). Voids appear as bright/red pixels in the
C-Scan image.

TecView™ UT display of A, B and C-Scan acquired on the brazed joint (Area 2) of one
of Vector Aerospace sample. Voids appear as bright/red pixels in the C-Scan image.
Conclusion

Automated ultrasonic testing is well adapted to the inspection of brazed joints on turbine
nozzle. Ultrasonic instrument and probe selection represent important factors for
successful development of the testing procedure. In addition, the flexibility of the motion
control and data acquisition system (TecViewTM), provided appropriate inspection
tools for the required millimetres inspection accuracies.
Automated Eddy Current Inspection of Aerospace Bearing
Raceways
Aerospace bearings are used in the design of engines for the civil and military
aerospace industries. Such bearings undergo a wide range of metallurgical, geometrical
and overall test conditions in order to ensure that they comply with the aerospace
industry standards. Once a bearing reaches the end of this chain, a non-destructive, high
frequency eddy current inspection is typically used to detect surface imperfections and
cracks that may be present on the bearing raceway. High performance testing equipment
is required and most of the time this NDT equipment is qualified by aerospace engine
manufacturers to inspect 100% for all critical features of bearings that will make it in
the motor engine.

Challenges:
Eddy Current Test of bearing races measures flaw responses as voltage and phase.
Depth of flaws that need to be detected can be as low as 0.002”, which calls for high
frequency tests to be performed (typically between 1 and 6 MHz). This also requires
signal amplification that can reach 75 dB in some cases. On the other hand, the material
properties and the residual magnetisation of the bearings contribute to high-level of
noise in the eddy current signals. Therefore, achieving good inspection results with
proper signal-to-noise ratios is an important challenge since we must consider
optimizing the required signal amplification.

In addition, probe to part alignment is critical in obtaining a stable eddy current

response as the part is scanned. While this can be easily achieved on roller bearing
raceways, ball bearings represent a particular challenge since the probe angle must vary
according to the ball diameter.

Solution:

Automated eddy current inspection of the bearing raceways is done using a 4-axis table-
top scanner (X, Y, Gimbal and Turntable axes). For the inspection of bearings having
36” maximum diameter, a turntable and a low profile rotational probe holder is used
allowing to rotate the probe within a ball bearing raceway while maintaining probe
orientation. The automated system uses TecViewTM EC for the scanner motion control,
data acquisition and signal analysis.
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