Ultrasonic testing
Ultrasonic testing is done in materials to determine whether there are flaws or defects present in a material, and also to determine the thickness of a material.
Ultrasonic testing methods use sound waves to find defects and measure thickness.
Ultrasonic Testing (UT) is also often called Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement (UTM), Ultrasonic Thickness Testing (UTT), or Sonic Testing (ST). It is most commonly used on metal, because metal conducts sound waves in a manner that supports this kind of measurement.
This method is commonly used by inspectors as one of many Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) testing methods, allowing them to collect information about the condition of an asset without having to damage it.
The first ultrasonic thickness test was developed after the Titanic sank in 1912.
Researchers wanted to identify ways that ships could find icebergs before they could see them, and they began testing sound waves for this purpose.
After these tests, sonic testing was developed further during World War I as a way to find submarines.
It wasn’t until 1928 that scientists started testing UT for industrial purposes, when a Soviet researcher named Sergei Sokolov found that sound waves could be used to identify defects in metal materials. Over the next several decades the technique gained wide adoption, and since then it has become one of the more common NDT methods.
