Detection of defects in metallic specimens supported by ultrasound propagation simulations

Abstract

AbstractThe main aim of non-destructive testing (NDT) with ultrasounds (US) is the materials defect detection with respect to their main data, i. e. size, shape, and position. Inspectors carry out this task by attention to the reflected signal in the material and by comparison of the signals obtained at a specific defect with those of the defect-free material. In this way, the existence or absence of heterogeneities to be attributed to a specific defect can be determined. Inspectors are trained using specimens of the same material in which artificial defects are created, in order to establish a hypothetical appearance as natural defects. Such to be tested material specimens can be really expensive, and the total cost is particularly increased by the defect incorporation with the main scope to create the ideal size defects. The main purpose of this study is the detection of defects in metallic specimens by simulation of ultrasonic propagation in order to reduce the high cost of ultrasound protocol tests by comparing simulated and experimental results. It turned out that the good correlation between both methods allows using ultrasonic simulation as training method.