Ultrasonic testing of materials at level 2. Manual for the syllabi contained in IAEA-TECDOC-628, training guidelines in non-destructive testing techniques

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been active in the promotion of non-destructive testing (NDT) technology for many years. The prime reason for this interest has been the need for stringent quality control standards for the safe operation of nuclear installations. The IAEA has successfully executed a number of regional projects of which NDT was an important part. These were the Regional Co-operative Arrangements for the Promotion of Nuclear Science and Technology in Latin America (ARCAL), the Regional Co-operative Agreement for Asia and the Pacific (RCA), the African Regional Co-operative Agreement (AFRA) and lately the NDT Regional Project in West Asia. Through these projects a large number of persons have been trained in Member States and a state of self-sufficiency in this area of technology has been achieved in many of them. There has long been a realization of the need to have well established training guidelines and related books in order, firstly, to guide IAEA experts who were involved in this training programme and, secondly, to achieve some level of international uniformity and harmonization of training materials and consequent competence of personnel. The syllabi for training courses have been published in the form of two publications, IAEA-TECDOC-407 and IAEA-TECDOC-628. IAEA-TECDOC-628, as well as most of the international standards on the subject of training and certification of NDT personnel includes ISO 9712. The next logical step is to compile the textbooks and training manuals. Work in this regard has been undertaken and a manual on radiographic testing was issued in 1992 in the Training Course Series. This publication is a continuation of that effort. Earlier training notes on this subject existed in the form of IAEA-TECDOC-462, which was compiled in accordance with the syllabus of IAEA-TECDOC-407. These fulfilled the training needs of the member countries of RCA for quite some time. The present book is in fact an expanded and updated version of the older document. An effort has been made to bring it as close as possible to the syllabus requirements of IAEA-TECDOC-628. This has been done by putting in additional material wherever needed and then rearranging the whole in accordance with the format of Level 2 Ultrasonic Testing syllabus in IAEA-TECDOC-628. A new Section on Special Techniques has been added in which the present status of development of various new techniques of ultrasonic testing, automated ultrasonic inspection and the basic concepts of data processing have been introduced. An extensive bibliography at the end covers all the references which have been used in the compilation as well as those which can be consulted for further information on ultrasonic testing of materials