PNNL

Abstract

The Applied Physics group at the Pacific The Applied Physics group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA has evaluated a method for waterless/liquidless coupling of ultrasonic energy from planar ultrasonic contact transducers to irregular test surfaces for ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation applications. Dry couplant material placed between a planar transducer face and a curved or uneven steel or plastic surface allows for effective sound energy coupling and preserves the integrity of the planar transducer sound field by serving as an acoustic impedance matching layer, providing good surface area contact between geometrically dissimilar surfaces and conforming to rough and unsmooth surfaces. Sound fields radiating from planar ultrasonic contact transducers coupled to curved and uneven surfaces using the dry coupling method were scanned and mapped using a Pinducer receiver connected to a raster scanner. Transducer sound field coverage at several ultrasonic frequencies and several distances from the transducer contact locations were found to be in good agreement with theoretical beam divergence and sound field coverage predictions for planar transducers coupled to simple, planar surfaces. This method is valuable for applications that do not allow for the use of traditional liquid-based ultrasonic couplants due to the sensitivity of the test materials to liquids and for applications that might otherwise require curved transducers or custom coupling wedges. The selection of dry coupling material is reported along with the results of theoretical sound field predictions, the laboratory testing apparatus and the empirical sound field data.