Technical Diagnostics and NDT

The development of a new imaging technique  by researchers from the University of Bristol’s Ultrasonics and Non-destructive Testing (NDT) research group promises to be able to detect damage previously invisible to acoustic imaging systems which could lead to aircraft off the future being thinner and lighter.  Acoustic nonlinearity is sensitive to many physical properties including material microstructure and mechanical damage. The lack of effective imaging has, however, held back the use of this important method.  Engineers are currently able to produce images of the interior of components using ultrasound, but can only detect large problems such as cracks.  Imaging of acoustic nonlinearity is achieved by exploiting differences in the propagation of fields produced by the parallel and sequential transmission of elements in ultrasonic arrays. Commenting on the project, study lead, Dr Jack Potter, research assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering s