Application of Polarized Shear Waves to Evaluate Anisotropy of Steel Sheets

Abstract

The use of heavy plates in mechanical construction, and steel sheets in deep drawing, requires homogeneous properties. These properties must be uniform along a same plate or from one sheet to another. In steel plants, the need to control these properties increases with the requirement of product quality. Generally, destructive techniques such as tensile tests, are used for quality control. The use of ultrasonics to test these properties offers great potentiality and the advantages of being nondestructive. In fact, classical destructive testing requires samples to be cut off from steel products. This kind of quality control presents many drawbacks:

• The cost is generally higher than the cost of nondestructive testing due to the need to cut off samples and the time spent for the preparation and the test.

• Destructive control proceeds by sampling. The assessment of quality can’t be obtained for the entire product.