Study of the ultrasonic creeping wave propagation over a concave metal surface

Abstract

Creeping ultrasonic waves are used in echo flaw detection of near-surface and near-bottom zones of metal products of plane-parallel or cylindrical shape. The creeping (lateral) waves are also used in testing products by the time-of-flight diffraction method as the earliest (reference) signal, followed by the useful signals of waves diffracted on metal discontinuities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of the creeping wave to propagate over a concave metal surface. We have studied experimentally the attenuation of the amplitude of a creeping wave with the distance upon wave propagation over concave metal surfaces of different radii. The velocity of propagation of the creeping wave does not depend on the radius of curvature and equals to the velocity of the bulk longitudinal wave. The results obtained provide the possibility of using the time-of-flight diffraction method in control of the objects with concave surfaces, in particular, for in-tube testing.