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Characterization of Ultrasonic Transducer Response Using Laser Doppler Interferometer in kHz-Range for Civil Engineering Applications

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Abstract

In typical NDT applications, anomalies are localized using different time-domain representations such as B, and C-scans. For these applications, the relative change in amplitude for the different frequency components present in the measured signals is not critical. On the other hand, this information is key when the main objective of the NDT measurements is the early detection of damage in construction materials such as concrete, asphalt, wood, or FRPs. The main objective of this paper is not the characterization for typical NDT applications; but for NDT applications in civil infrastructure; where surface waves are used, and the actual transducer wearing surface deformations are required to enhance the detection of distributed damage using wave amplitude changes as function of frequency and travel distance. Laser technology is used to characterize the response ultrasonic transducers, to demonstrate how different sections of the transmitter wear surface introduce different frequencies to the medium. The transducer characterization procedure designed in this study focuses on answering the fundamental question of what an ultrasonic transducer sends into the media in terms of the actual displacements in nanometres as a function of frequency. Finally, the benefits of the transducer characterization are demonstrated in a laboratory experiment with concrete specimens.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) and OPG/UNENE through the NSERC-CRD program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kinectrics Inc., 800 Kipling Ave., Toronto, Canada

    Piotr Wiciak

  2. Formerly University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Piotr Wiciak

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Maria Anna Polak & Giovanni Cascante

Authors
  1. Piotr Wiciak
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  2. Maria Anna Polak
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  3. Giovanni Cascante
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by PW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by PW, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Piotr Wiciak.

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Wiciak, P., Polak, M.A. & Cascante, G. Characterization of Ultrasonic Transducer Response Using Laser Doppler Interferometer in kHz-Range for Civil Engineering Applications. J Nondestruct Eval 41, 52 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-022-00884-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-022-00884-z

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