Detection of defects and evaluation of material deterioration using surface wave technique

It is very important to detect surface damage and evaluate deterioration of material surface because of their influences on mechanical properties of materials. In general, magnetic particle testing, liquid penetrant testing and eddy current testing are commonly used for detecting surface flaws. These methods, however, are neither effective for estimating flaw height nor for evaluating material deterioration. In this paper the authors apply surface wave propagating along the test surface for these purposes. The surface wave (Rayleigh wave) propagates only near the surface layer in the order of one wave length. In other words, the lower the frequency, the deeper the penetration depth of the surface wave. Accordingly, they can select the frequency considering the inspection purpose. On the other hand, when surface wave having broad-band frequency propagates along the surface of a specimen, higher frequency ultrasound propagates very close to the surface and lower frequency ultrasound propagates deeper in the specimen. Hence, frequency analysis is expected to be effective for estimating upper edge of flaw. Surface wave is also very sensitive to material surface properties such as existence of voids or micro cracks. Acoustic characteristics such as sound velocity, attenuation and other feature parameters are influenced by the variation of the material properties. Hence, material deterioration can be evaluated by the acoustic features