A New Method for Measuring the Variations of Longitudinal and Transverse Ultrasonic Wave Velocities with Changes in Temperature

Ultrasonic nondestructive testing is a powerful tool for detection of defects as well as characterization of various properties of materials. In ultrasonic testing, it is very important to know the exact wave velocity in the material because most measurements somehow depend on wave velocity. Many other characteristics of materials such as elastic constants also depend on wave velocity. While variations of wave velocity in ambient temperatures is very small, these variations could be noticeable at high temperatures. In this paper, a simple and innovative experimental method is proposed for measurement of ultrasonic wave velocities at high temperatures. To keep the ultrasonic probe far from the hot sample, a special waveguide is designed. The wave velocity measurements are performed by pulse-echo ultrasonic testing technique and variations of ultrasonic wave velocities at temperatures ranging from 40oC to 160oC are investigated. It is observed that the velocity of ultrasonic waves decrease with increase in temperature. Experimental results are compared with theory and measurement uncertainties are calculated. These uncertainties are ±0.01 m/s and ±0.003 m/s for longitudinal and transverse wave velocities, respectively. The theoretical and experimental results agree very well.