Improvement of Ultrasonic Wave Velocity Measurements in Steel Components by Using the SAGE Algorithm

Measurement of wave velocity in materials is very important.It has applications in ultrasonic thickness gauging as well as estimating the elastic constants of materials. In this paper, it is intended to improve the accuracy of wave velocity measurements by signal processing techniques. For this purpose, the SAGE algorithm, which is a model-based estimation technique, is implemented. Using SAGE, the overlapping echoes are separated and consequently the time-delay between these echoes is estimated more accurately. The signal processing scheme reduces the adverse effects of noise too. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, an AISI 4140 steel block with four steps of thicknesses 10, 15, 20, and 25 mm was tested by the immersion ultrasonic testing technique. The time-delaybetween echoes obtained from each step was measured fifty times and by averaging these measurements, the actual time-delay and its uncertainty were estimated. The thickness of the block at each step was also measured by a micrometer. Using the time-delay and thickness data, the wave velocity and its uncertainty were estimated for each of the four thicknesses. The results shows that this technique can reduce the uncertainty of wave velocity measurements significantly.