An Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Equivalent Flaw Sizing Method

Abstract

Abstract One of the challenging tasks in the field of ultrasonic NDE is to obtain quantitative flaw size, shape, and orientation information. In an equivalent flaw sizing approach, flaws in a material are reconstructed in terms of a best-fit simple shape such as an ellipsoid or ellipse. In this work, a new time-of-flight equivalent (TOFE) flaw sizing method is developed for obtaining best-fit equivalent flaws from a relatively small number of timing measurements at different transducer orientations. The performance of the method is demonstrated on synthetic numerical data and with experiments, including examples of sizing in anisotropic composite materials and in welds.