By:

Mrs. Rupali Dashrath Bhondave

HSBPVT’S, GOI,
College of Engineering, Kashti
Defination of Non- Destructive Testing : NDT is the technique which is used to
determine the overall quality of the product without impairing the properties of
the material.
 This is done by low intensity sound waves which do not cause any change in
the physical and chemical characteristics of the material under the test.
 The ultrasonic waves are propagated into the piece under inspection.
 The defects such as cracks, cavity, flakes are detected by the reflection of the
wave at the interface in the object.
 This is done without any damage to the piece under test
Objective of NDT:
1. Assessment of the quality of the product or concrete in relation to
standard requirements.
2. Quality control of precast units.
3. Assessment of quality of one material compared to other.
4. Monitoring of strength development in relation to removal of framework
cessation of curing, prestressing load application or any other related
measurement.
5. Removing uncertainties about the acceptability of the material supplied.
6. Determining the cracks , voids honeycombing and similar defects within
a concrete structure.
7. Determining the position and condition of reinforcement.
Types of Defects:
 Cracking: It is very common that usually detectable distress appears in any
building which needs repair or retrofit.
 Spalling: De-lamination of the surface of concrete is known as spalling.
Usually internal stress or external loads are responsible for spalling.
 Staining: it is an other important defect appearing in the bulding or in the
structures which is usually caused by absorption of water which consists of
salt, minerals and results in leaching or draining over other components.
 Construction design defect:There are many defects which may arises during
construction of buildings, like choice of wrong wall thickness, out of plumb
of walls, defective joints and bonds ,misalignment of joint , lack of movement
of joint etc.
 Dusting: it is a surface defect which arises due to presence of fine powder on
the concrete surface comes off when it is brushed.
 Blistering: This defect arises when fresh concrete surface is sealed by
trowelling as long as possible and converting to prevent evaporation.
 rain damage: heavy rain may cause tilted surface and eroded surface on the
concrete structure.

PRINCIPLE OF NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING:

How do Now, how does NDT works? we obtain what we require through NDT?
The Principle of NDT

 Various NDT technique utilize different mechanism. However, the principle

behind all is similar. All NDT techniques produces an appropriate input which
is delivered to the test piece (material, product or equipment in question)
and as a feedback an output or response containing the required information
is returned from the test piece.
 The deviation of this output or response from the output or response from a
test piece with no defect is a measure of the flaws within the test piece under
investigation.
 The information received from the test piece is not always in a form that the
uninitiated could easily deduce anything from. The operator on the other
hand has been trained and is able to make a correct inference from the
information received. They are able to identify deviations in the output from
the reference output.

Advantages of Non-Destructive Technique:

 This is performed without making any physical or chemical change of the
material.
 it can access difficult penetration area of the material .
 it is less expensive.

Classification of Non - Destructive Techniques:

 Radiographic Inspection
 Ultrasonic Inspection
 Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement
 Flaw detection
 Acoustic Emission Testing
 Dye – Penetrant Inspection
 Radiographic Inspection:

Radiographic NDT is a technique which utilizes high frequency

electromagnetic radiation to evaluate material properties or the integrity of
aproduct or equipment.

Basically, Gamma and X-rays are the two used electromagnetic radiation
for radiogra Gamma and X-rays can be found on the extreme of the
electromagnetic spectrum as shown. They have high frequency and thus energy,
which gives them enough penetrating power. It is noteworthy that gamma rays are
more powerful than X-rays.

 Set-up and Procedure:

Radiographic inspection requires three (3) main components – the

radiation source, the test material and a Radiation sensitive film.

The Radiation source utilized depends on the application – such as the

size of the material, material thickness, density and so on. Gamma rays are
gotten from radioactive elements such as Iridium – 192 and Cobalt – 60. X-rays
are generated using X-ray machines.
Simple Set-up of Radiographic Inspection

The radiation source is placed on one side of the test piece and the
Radiation sensitive film is positioned on the other side. The Radiation source and
film must be properly aligned to allow for proper exposure of the film.

When all precautions as well as safety measures are in place, the

radiation source is turned on and a beam of radiation is allowed through the
material under test and from there the emerging beam hits the radiation
sensitive film.

The more dense the material, the more it will retard the beam passing
through it. The Beam emerging from the test piece will then proceed to the
radiation sensitive film and an image called a Radiograph is formed on the film
(although the film has to be developed first in similar manner as photographic
films).

The Radiograph which usually consists of numerous light and dark

portions is a graphical representation of the internal structure of the material
and thus any defect present will be exposed.
 Darker portions are an indication of more exposure of the film and
this signifies that the emerging ray from the material which hits this portion of
the film had passed through a region of low density or free of defects within the
material. Lighter region, is the reverse. It shows that the beam had passed
through a region that is denser or have defects. By interpreting the Radiograph,
a trained operator is able to make inference about the integrity of the material
tested.

 Application and Advantages:

Radiographic inspection is applied to metal structures - weld deposit,
pipeline, machined parts etc.
 They are used to evaluate the mechanical properties of castings and to
determine the presence of defects and inclusions in the casting. Non-
metallics like Plastics, concretes etc.

ULTRASONIC INSPECTION:
Ultrasonic testing is similar to Radiographic testing in one sense – they
both depend on waves. However, instead of electromagnetic waves as in
Radiographic testing, ultrasonic testing employs high frequency sound waves.
Perhaps one familiar place where you must have heard of ultrasonic testing is in
the scan of a pregnant woman to check on the status of the baby and the mother.
It is called obstetric ultrasonography.

Ultrasound waves behaves just like normal sound waves. In fact

ultrasound waves are just sound waves beyond the auditory capacity of humans. It
has been determined that any sound beyond a frequency of 20, 000 Hz (20 kHz)
cannot be perceived by humans. Thus, 20 kHz is taken as the lower limit for
ultrasound waves. The specific frequency utilized depends on the application.

 Set-up and Procedure:

The elements needed for ultrasonic testing are – Ultrasonic transducer,

Test material and a display.
 The ultrasonic transducer (a transducer is any device that converts one
form of energy into another) is simply a piezoelectric material. The transducer uses
the piezoelectric effect to generate ultrasonic sound waves. Wondering what a
piezoelectric effect is? It is the conversion of electrical energy into sound energy or
vice versa.

Electrical pulses are sent to the transducer and this causes it to vibrate.
By virtue of this process, sound waves with high frequency are generated.

The generated ultrasonic wave is directed through the material and the
corresponding echo is received by the transducer. The nature of the echo,
particular the time of arrival is an indication of the internal structure of the
material. The transducer reconvert this echo into electrical pulses which may be
turned into an image or in form of graph displayed on a screen for analysis.

Simple Set-up of Ultrasonic Inspection

Let’s look at the illustration to the right for a better understanding of the
concept. The transducer sends an Ultrasonic signal into the material. If the
material is free of defect, the signal bounces off at the other surface and it is
received by the transducer. However, if the sent signal encounters a defect in its
path, it is reflected before it reaches the bottom.
 By comparing the echo with defect with that without defect a trained
operator can characterize the defect. The overall material depth can also be
determine for a material without defect is it is of interest to the operator.

Application and Advantages:

They are used to inspect welds in particular. Porosity, cracks, slag, holes and
any other discontinuity can be easily detected using ultrasonic testing. Other
classes of materials can also be inspected using ultrasonic testing.

A typical application of Ultrasonic testing is in the evaluation of the

effectiveness of self-healing concrete.

Acoustic Emmision Technique:

Acoustic emission (AE) testing is a non-destructive testing (NDT) technique
that detects and monitors the release of ultrasonic stress waves from localised
sources when a material deforms under stress.

Acoustic emission testing works by mounting small sensors onto a

component under test. The sensors convert the stress waves into electrical signals,
which are relayed to an acquisition PC for processing.

The waves are captured when the component is submitted to an external

stimulus, such as high pressures, loads or temperatures. As the damage grows in
the component, there is a greater release of energy. The rates in which the acoustic
emission is detected, the activity, and the intensity of the acoustic emission, the
loudness, are monitored and used for assessing structural integrity and for health
monitoring of components.

Acoustic emission can be thought of as tiny earthquakes that occur in the

material. The technique globally monitors a component for defects, allowing large
structures and machines to be monitored while in operation with minimal
disruption, unlike destructive testing. By using multiple sensors, acoustic emission
sources (and hence the damage) can be located. Through signal analysis, the
presence of different source mechanisms can also be determined.
 There are two AE testing methods: transient and continuous. The
transient method captures AE bursts that exceed a threshold (loudness level) and
extract features such as peak amplitude, signal energy and duration of the
burst. These features are then used to assess the condition of the component
under test. This method is well suited for testing structures for defects such as
cracks.

The continuous method captures all AE within a set time period, for
example 1/10th of a second. Then, features such as average signal level and root-
mean squared (RMS) values are then extracted. This method is well suited to
applications where there is a lot of background AE or AE amplitude is low, for
example when testing gearboxes or detecting leaks.

Advantages:
 Ability to detect a range of damage mechanisms including, but not limited
to, fibre breakages, friction, impacts, cracking, delamination and corrosion in
their early stages, before they become significant issues
 Can be conducted during operation, during qualification (proof) testing or
development testing
 Can locate damage sources and can be differentiate these based on acoustic
signatures
 Global monitoring of a structure
 Assesses the structure or machine under real operational conditions
 A non-invasive method
 Operational in hazardous environments, including high temperatures, high
pressures and corrosive and nuclear environments
 Can be conducted remotely
 Can detect damages in defects that are difficult to access with conventional
non-destructive testing techniques
 Question Bank
Q.1 Explain the objective of NDT.
Q.2 Write the classification of NDT and explain any one of them in brief.
Q.3 Write a note on Radiographic testing.
Q.4 Write working principle of NDT.