Acoustic Impedance

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Introduction to
Ultrasonic Testing

Introduction
Acoustic Impedance Basic Principles
History
Sound travels through materials under the influence of sound pressure. Because molecules or atoms Present State
of a solid are bound elastically to one another, the excess pressure results in a wave propagating Future Direction
through the solid.
Physics of Ultrasound
Wave Propagation
The acoustic impedance (Z) of a material is defined as the product of its density (p) and acoustic
Modes of Sound Waves
velocity (V). Properties of Plane Waves
Wavelength/Flaw Detection
Z = pV Elastic Properties of Solids
Attenuation
Acoustic Impedance
Acoustic impedance is important in
Reflection/Transmission
Refraction & Snell's Law
1. the determination of acoustic transmission and reflection at the boundary of two materials Mode Conversion
having different acoustic impedances. Signal-to-noise Ratio
2. the design of ultrasonic transducers. Wave Interference
3. assessing absorption of sound in a medium.
Equipment &
Transducers
The following applet can be used to calculate the acoustic impedance for any material, so long as its Piezoelectric Transducers
density (p) and acoustic velocity (V) are known. The applet also shows how a change in the Characteristics of PT
impedance affects the amount of acoustic energy that is reflected and transmitted. The values of the Radiated Fields
reflected and transmitted energy are the fractional amounts of the total energy incident on the Transducer Beam Spread
interface. Note that the fractional amount of transmitted sound energy plus the fractional amount of Transducer Types
reflected sound energy equals one. The calculation used to arrive at these values will be discussed on Transducer Testing I
Transducer Testing II
the next page.
Transducer Modeling
Couplant
EMATs
Pulser-Receivers
Tone Burst Generators
Function Generators
Impedance Matching
Data Presentation
Error Analysis

Measurement
Techniques
Normal Beam Inspection
Angle Beams I
Angle Beams II
Crack Tip Diffraction
Automated Scanning
Velocity Measurements
Measuring Attenuation

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Acoustic Impedance

Spread Spectrum
Signal Processing
Flaw Reconstruction

Calibration Methods
Calibration Methods
DAC Curves
Curvature Correction
Thompson-Gray Model
UTSIM
Grain Noise Modeling
References/Standards

Selected Applications
Rail Inspection
Weldments

Reference Material
UT Material Properties
References

Quizzes

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