Duration: 10 days
What will I learn?
This curriculum meets or exceeds the examination
syllabus for the certification of Level 2 personnel in
Ultrasonic Testing of Aerospace Materials and
Components, in accordance to EN 4179.
The course ends with the certification examination.
Objectives
Day 1 (Hours 1 to 4) THEORY,
CHAPTER 1: Basic Principles of Eddy Currents
CHAPTER 1: Generation and Detection of Ultrasonic
Energy The nature of sound Acoustics Transmission of
sound, Basic application to the detection of defects,
Electro-acoustic transducers Natural piezo-electric
crystals Synthetically grown crystals, artificially
produced piezo-electric materials, Polarized PVDF film,
Curie temperature, Piezo-electric transducer qualities,
Standing waves, Resonant frequency
APPENDIX B: Reference Literature: Standards and
Specifications
APPENDIX E: Glossary of Terms
Day 1 (Hours 5 to 8) PRACTICAL,
Hour 5 Instructor Demo, Equipment calibration
Hours 6 to 8 Student Practice, Practical Exercises (QRS
29) HOMEWORK Chapter 1 issued
Day 2 (Hours 9 to 12) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapters 1,
CHAPTER 3: Electrical Theory
Direct current (DC), Direct current theory, Alternating
current (AC) theory
CHAPTER 2: Propagation of Ultrasonic Waves in
Materials
Modes of propagation: Compressional, Shear, Surface,
Plate (Lamb), Creeping
CHAPTER 3: Sound Distribution from a Crystal
Huygens Principle, Near field Far Field Beam Axis, Sound
attenuation in the far field, Calculation of near field and
beam spread, Calculation of beam diameter, Beam
profile
Day 2 (Hours 13 to 16) PRACTICAL,
Hour 13 Instructor Demo, Characteristics of Reflectors
Hours 14 to 16 Student Practice, Practical Exercises (QRS
29)
HOMEWORK Chapters 2 & 3 issue
Day 3 (Hours 17 to 20) THEORY
Review of Homework Chapter 2 & 3
CHAPTER 4: Behavior of Ultrasound at Material
Interfaces (Reflection)
Reflection, Characteristic acoustic impedance
Significance of acoustic impedance variations, Couplant,
Reflection and refraction of ultrasonic energy, Reflection
of incident compressional
wave, Reflection of incident shear wave, Main
applications in ultrasonic inspection, Effect of
beam spread Plate or wall thickness Applications,
Relative amplitudes and angles
Day 3 (Hours 21 to 24) PRACTICAL,
Hour 21 Instructor Demo, Acoustic Impedance Beam
spread
Hours 22 to 24 Student Practice, Practical Exercises (QRS
29)
HOMEWORK Chapter 4 issued
Day 4 (Hours 25 to 28) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapter 4
CHAPTER 5: Behavior of Ultrasound at Material
Interfaces (Refraction)
Refraction of incident compressional wave, First critical
angle, Second critical angle, Refraction of incident shear
wave, Main applications in ultrasonic inspection, Effect
of temperature changes, Skip distance, Path length
Day 3 (Hours 29 to 32) PRACTICAL,
Hour 29 Instructor Demo, Shear wave calibration Skip
distance Path length
Hours 30 to 32 Student Practice,
Practical Exercises (QRS 29)
HOMEWORK Chapter 5 issued
Day 5 (Hours 33 to 36) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapter 5
CHAPTER 6: Probe Design, Operating Frequency and
Identification
Probe design, Probe design considerations Piezo-electric
elements Probe operating frequency Natural resonant
frequency, Pulse length and backing members Q and
bandwidth, Sensitivity, acoustic impedance and resolving
power, Optimum sensitivity and
Resolution, Probe performance, Probe identification,
Probe types: compressional, shear, surface, lamb, delay,
twin, water immersion and water irrigated, roller,
focused, paintbrush (mosaic)
CHAPTER 7: Flaw Detector Principles
Basic components of flaw detector, including: Cathode
ray tube, pulse generator, PRF, pulse transmitter, time
base sweep generator, amplifier, reject, gain,
attenuators, signal processing, filters, gates, displays, Ascan presentation
Day 5 (Hours 37 to 40) PRACTICAL,
Hour 37 Instructor Demo, Flaw detector: PRF, filters,
displays, damping, pulse length, reject.
Hours 38 to 40 Student Practice,
Practical Exercises (QRS 29)
HOMEWORK Chapters 6 & 7 issued
Day 6 (Hours 41 to 44) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapter 6 & 7
Review of Days 1 to 5
CHAPTER 8: Practical Applications
Advantages, limitations and disadvantages of ultrasonic,
Factors affecting the sensitivity and resolution of an
ultrasonic technique including: probe, test set, specimen,
Flaw, Probe selection
APPENDIX A: Writing of Reports and Instructions
Day 6 (Hours 45 to 48) PRACTICAL,
Hours 45 to 48 Student Practice, Writing of a Report and
an Instruction
Practical Exercises (QRS 29)
HOMEWORK Chapters 8 issued
Day 7 (Hours 49 to 52) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapter 8
Review of Reports and Instructions
CHAPTER 9: Calibration and Performance Checking of
Equipment
Calibration blocks, Time base calibration and linearity,
Amplifier linearity and calibration of gain control Probe
frequency, pulse shape and duration Sensitivity and
signal-to-noise ratio,
Dead zone Beam Width Resolution, Probe index, beam
angle, squint, Periodicity and
acceptance criteria
Day 7 (Hours 53 to 56) PRACTICAL,
Hour 53 to 54 Instructor Demo, Calibration and
Performance Checking of Equipment Hours 55 to 56
Student Practice, Calibration and Performance Checking
of Equipment Practical Exercises (QRS 29)
HOMEWORK Chapter 9 issued
Day 8 (Hours 57 to 60) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapter 9
CHAPTER 10: Immersion Techniques
Immersion systems, Advantages and disadvantages of
immersion testing, Water gap Probes
Scrubbers, Back reflector method, Effect of curvature on
sound beam
CHAPTER 11: Defect Sizing
The Decibel, Equivalent flat bottom hole (FBH) method,
FBH reference blocks, Distance, gain, size (DGS) method,
6 dB drop method, 20 dB drop method, Maximum
amplitude
method, Distance amplitude correction (DAC) curves,
Reject
Day 8 (Hours 61 to 64) PRACTICAL,
Hour 61 to 62 Instructor Demo, Immersion system Defect
sizing Hours 63 to 64 Student Practice, Immersion system
Defect sizing Practical Exercises (QRS 29)
HOMEWORK Chapters 10 & 11 issued
Day 9 (Hours 65 to 68) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapters 10 & 11
CHAPTER 12: Other Ultrasonic Methods
B-Scan, C-Scan, Resonance method, Digital readout
thickness gauges, Acoustic emission
Day 9 (Hours 69 to 72) PRACTICAL
Hours 69 to 72 Student Practice, Immersion system
Defect sizing
Practical Exercises (QRS 29)
HOMEWORK Chapter 12 issued
Day 10 (Hours 73 to 80) THEORY,
Review of Homework Chapters 12
Review of Days 6 to 9
APPENDIX C: Comparison of Methods
Course Review Theory Review Practical Review
End of Course Examination
Debrief
Day 10 (Hours 73 to 80) PRACTICAL,
Hours 73 to 80 Student Practice, Completion of Exercises
as required
Practical Exercises (QRS 29)