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Ultrasonics
Part 4. Transducers for generating and detecting sound waves
J C Drury
to high frequencies) and gave better ultrasonic performance, as much as 60 to 70% more efficient than quartz. These materials have to be polarised. During polarisation the individual crystals align themselves in the same direction so that their combined effect is coherent. The polarisation process involves heating the discs in an oil bath to a critical temperature called the Curie temperature, applying a strong electrostatic field across the disc and then allowing the temperature to cool slowly. Figure 4.1 illustrates the polarising process.
Figure 4.1
Ultrasonic transducers
A transducer is a device that will change one form of energy into another. Ultrasonic transducers change electrical energy into mechanical energy (sound waves) or vice versa. There are several methods used to generate and detect ultrasonic pulses in modern flaw detection and the most common of these makes use of the piezoelectric effect found in certain materials. Other methods, such as the electro magnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) and laser technology will also be described.
The Curie temperature differs for each of the common materials used in ultrasonics, so that the oil bath will need to be heated to a suitable temperature for the material in use. For barium titanate the Curie temperature is around 120C, whereas for various grades of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) the temperature is from 190 to 350C and for lead metaniobate (PMN) it is about 400C. If the material is subsequently heated to a temperature near to the Curie temperature, the disc will depolarise and lose its piezoelectric properties. It follows that care needs to be taken to avoid depolarisation when testing hot materials and this will sometimes influence the choice of transducer material.
Mode of vibration
Whether the transducer disc is made from a naturally occurring piezoelectric crystal, or one of the polarised polycrystalline materials, we usually refer to the disc as the crystal when talking about probe construction. The crystal disc or plate may be round or rectangular and for some applications may be curved plates or concave discs to focus the sound. The way in which the plate vibrates when stimulated by an electrical pulse depends upon the cut, in the case of quartz, or the direction of polarisation in the case of polycrystalline materials. Figure 4.2 represents a typical quartz crystal showing the three axes defined by crystallographers, and two plates cut from a crystal, one an X-cut plate and the other a Y-cut plate. An X-cut plate is taken from the quartz crystal so that the X-axis is perpendicular to the plate and the Y-cut plate has the Y-axis perpendicular to the plate. If a voltage is applied across the faces of these plates, an X-cut crystal will distort in the thickness mode whereas a Y-cut crystal will distort in shear mode. Figure 4.3 illustrates the changes in shape when an alternating voltage is applied to an X-cut crystal and Figure 4.4 shows the shape changes for a Y-cut crystal. The same two modes of vibration can be
Piezoelectric transducers
In 1880 the Curie brothers discovered that slices cut in a particular way from certain crystal materials would generate an electrical potential across the faces of the slice when distorted by a mechanical force. They called this phenomenon piezoelectricity from the Greek words for pressure and electricity. A year or so later, Lippman reported that the reverse was true: that a voltage applied across the slice would produce a mechanical distortion. Quartz was the prime example of a piezoelectric material, but Rochelle salts and Tourmaline crystals also displayed the same effect. For the first thirty years of ultrasonic flaw detection, from Sokolov in 1929 until the end of the nineteen-fifties, quartz was the most common transducer material. Appropriate slices were cut from a single crystal. Later, new polycrystalline materials were developed that had lower electrical impedance (resistance
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Example Calculate the required thickness of a PZT crystal to produce a resonant frequency of 5 MHz given that the compression wave velocity for PZT is 3000 m/s.
fxt =
t=
V 2
V 2 xf
t=
Figure 4.2
obtained using the polycrystalline materials by polarising across the faces of the plate (equivalent to X-cut), or parallel to the faces of the plate (equivalent to Y-cut) The X-cut crystal is the one most commonly used in ultrasonic flaw detection, it can generate and detect compression waves, and can therefore transmit sound through the liquid couplant we use. Since shear waves cannot exist in liquids or gases, the only way in which a Y-cut crystal could be used to generate shear waves in a metal object would be to use a solid couplant or high viscosity liquid such as honey; in other words we would need to almost glue the crystal in position. This is done in a few very special applications.
Figure 4.5
In ultrasonics we shorten the pulse duration by applying a weight to the back of the crystal known as the damping or backing slug. The damping slug is often made of a mixture of tungsten powder in an epoxy resin. The amount of damping applied to the crystal will govern the resolution of the probe. A short pulse probe will have only one or two cycles, whereas a longer pulse probe may have from three to five cycles. An undamped crystal may have twelve or more cycles in the pulse. For a given number of cycles in a pulse, the duration or space occupied by the pulse will depend on the wavelength, which in turn depends on the probe frequency and the velocity of sound in the material being inspected. Thus: Pulse length = Number of cycles in the pulse multiplied by the wavelength. It is obvious that one way to improve resolution would be to increase the test frequency, however, since the penetration of sound into the object decreases as the frequency increases, this is not always possible. Choosing a suitable test frequency is often a compromise between resolution penetration and flaw sensitivity and sometimes ultrasonics will not be able to detect a particular discontinuity at the critical depth. While resolution is an important consideration in many applications, it is not always the case and sometimes a longer pulse is preferable. For example, in the
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examination of a long shaft such as a railway axle, the screen on the flaw detector may only be 75 mm wide and the display may represent the length of the shaft, say 2.5 m long. A short pulse of 2 cycles will occupy such a small part of the screen that it is too faint to see and it would be better to use a longer, more visible pulse
Piezo-composite transducers
In a more recent development of the piezoelectric transducer, the active plate in the test probe is made by slicing piezoelectric crystals into small squares and assembling them into a matrix separated with an epoxy or a rubber compound as shown in Figure 4.6. The main advantages of this type of construction are, firstly, lower acoustic impedance allowing better acoustic matching. This is an advantage when testing castings and stainless steel. Secondly, resolution they tend to provide short pulses without additional damping, allowing the probes to have a low profile.
not have to travel through the gap material. The probes can be configured to generate horizontally polarised shear waves directly into the test object. This is an advantage when testing austenitic welds, castings and other materials with dendritic grain structure because the shear wave does not mode convert when it meets a reflecting surface that is parallel to the direction of polarisation. Because shear waves travel at roughly half the velocity of compression waves and have shorter wavelengths, it is possible to obtain better near-surface resolution and this can be an advantage when testing thin materials. However, there are some disadvantages with EMAT probes. They are relatively large and inefficient compared with conventional probes and they cannot be used on non-conducting test objects unless a conducting coating is applied.
Laser transducers
Another non-contact method of generating ultrasound uses laser technology. A short burst of a laser beam on the surface of the test object causes a thermal shock with rapid local expansion of the surface. The sudden distortion of the surface causes an ultrasonic pulse to travel through the test object. The returning echo distorts the test surface and this distortion can be detected by a separate laser interferometer without a couplant, or can be detected with a conventional piezoelectric crystal and couplant. The gap between the transducer and test surface can be greater than is possible with EMAT probes and can be as much as 250 mm (10 inches). Typical applications include the inspection of composite materials in the aircraft industry. References 1. Ultrasonic Flaw Detection for Technicians - Third Edition, June 2004 by J C Drury. 2. Ultrasonic Flaw Detection in Metals Banks Oldfield & Rawding ILIFFE 1962. The next article in this series will cover probe construction.
Figure 4.6
n the twenty-five years since the first edition of Ultrasonic Flaw Detection for Technicians was published, there have been a number of advances in transducer technology and flaw detection instruments. The gradual acceptance by industry that the sizing of weld defects by intensity drop was not as accurate as had been claimed led to the development of the TOFD technique. Modern digital flaw detectors and computer technology allow far more information to be stored by the operator. The author thus felt that it was time to give the book a thorough review and to try to address some of the advances. The result is this new edition. Available price 25.00 (Non-Members); 22.50 (BINDT Members) from the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing, 1 Spencer Parade, Northampton NN1 5AA, England. Tel: +44 (0)1604 630124; Fax: +44 (0)1604 231489; E-mail: info@bindt.org
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