The amendments of this third English edition with respect to the second one concern beside some printing errors the replacement of some pictures in part D by more modern ones and updating the list of stand ards to the state of the fourth German edition. J OSEF KRAUTKRÄMER Cologne, January 1983 Preface to the Second Edition This seeond English edition is based on the third German edition. In view of most recent teehnologieal advanees it has beeome neeessary in many instanees to supplement the seeond German edition and to revise some parts completely. In addition to piezo-eleetric methods, others are now also extensively diseussed in Chapter 8. As for the intensity method, ultrasonie holo graphy is treated in the new Seetion 9. 4. In Part B, for reasons of syste maties, the resonanee method has been ineluded under transit-time methods. It appeared neeessary to elaborate in greater detail the defini tion of the properties of pulse-echo testing equipment and their measure ments (10. 4). The more recent findings of pulse speetroscopy (5. 6) and sound-emission analysis (12) are mentioned only in passing because their significanee is still controversial. Apart from numerous additions, partieularly those coneerning automatie testing installations, Part C also eontains a new chapter whieh deals with tests on nu eIe ar reactors (28), as weIl as abrief diseussion of surfaee-hardness tests (32. 4). It beeame impossible to include a critieal analysis of the principal standards in Chapter 33.

Nondestructive testing of solid material using ultrasonic waves, for defects such as cavities, nonbonding, and strength variations, is treated in this book from the physical fundamentals of ultrasonics and materials up to the most sophisticated methods. The book is written at a level which should make it accessible to readers with some knowledge of technical mathematics. Physical laws are explained in elementary terms, and more sophisticated treatments are also indicated. After the fundamentals, instrumentation and its application is extensively reported. Tricks and observations from thirty years of experience in the field are included. The third part of the book presents test problems related to special materials or ranges of modern heavy industry, including recent applications such as those in nuclear power plants. This fourth edition features improved presentation of certain fundamental physical facts, updated reports on electronic instrumentation, and new applications in the nuclear and space industries.

This book features a comprehensive discussion of the mathematical foundations of ultrasonic nondestructive testing of materials. The authors include a brief description of the theory of acoustic and electromagnetic fields to underline the similarities and differences with respect to elastodynamics. They also cover vector, elastic plane, and Rayleigh surface waves as well as ultrasonic beams, inverse scattering, and ultrasonic nondestructive imaging. A coordinate-free notation system is used that is easier to understand and navigate than standard index notation.

This second English edition is based on the third German edition. In view of most recent technological advances it has become necessary in many instances to supplement the second German edition and to revise some parts completely. In addition to piezo-electric methods, others are now also extensively discussed in Chapter 8. As for the intensity method, ultrasonic holo graphy is treated in the new Section 9. 4. In Part B, for reasons of syste matics, the resonance method has been included under transit-time methods. It appeared necessary to elaborate in greater detail the defini tion of the properties of pulse-echo testing equipment and their measure ments (10. 4). The more recent findings of pulse spectroscopy (5. 6) and sound-emission analysis (12) are mentioned only in passing because their significance is still controversial. Apart from numerous additions, particularly those concerning automatic testing installations, Part C also contains a new chapter which deals with tests on nuclear reactors (28), as well as a brief discussion of surface-hardness tests (32. 4). It became impossible to include a critical analysis of the principal standards in Chapter 33. A few are mentioned, however, where the most important subjects (e. g. , the testing of welded joints in Chapter 26) are discussed, while others are only tabulated in Chapter 33. The present, vastly increased literature made bibliographical selection rather difficult. Consequently, we wish to apologize to any authors whose reports may have been omitted because of limitations governing the size of this volume.

Ultrasonic methods have been very popular in nondestructive testing and characterization of materials. This book deals with both industrial ultrasound and medical ultrasound. The advantages of ultrasound include flexibility, low cost, in-line operation, and providing data in both signal and image formats for further analysis. The book devotes 11 chapters to ultrasonic methods. However, ultrasonic methods can be much less effective with some applications. So the book also has 14 chapters catering to other or advanced methods for nondestructive testing or material characterization. Topics like structural health monitoring, Terahertz methods, X-ray and thermography methods are presented. Besides different sensors for nondestructive testing, the book places much emphasis on signal/image processing and pattern recognition of the signals acquired.