Non-contact ultrasonic measurements on steel at elevated temperatures

Abstract Non-contact ultrasonic measurements have been made on ferritic and austenitic steel specimens as a function of temperature from ambient to 1200°C, using a pulsed laser to generate and a reference beam laser interferometer to receive the ultrasound. The generation efficiency is found to remain surprisingly constant in both thermoelastic and ablation regimes over a wide temperature range. The sensitivity of the laser interferometer is also found to be temperature independent to a first approximation. However, it is typically reduced by 3–6 dB by convection currents above ∼ 900°C. Both the compression and shear velocities decrease with rising temperature. The former is measured with a precision of 1 in 10 3 , the latter rather less accurately with the present configuration. Compression wave attenuation increases steadily below 600°C in both materials. There is a peak in attenuation in ferritic steel between 600 and 750°C, which is absent in austenitic steel. It coincides with a steeper decrease in ultrasonic velocity and is believed to be due to the martensitic structural phase transformation. The attenuation rose more rapidly in both materials as 1000°C was approached. The material attenuation varied with heat treatment, a value in the range 1–1.5 dB cm −1 being recorded at 1000°C. Complicated effects were observed during heat treatments at 1000°C and above. Both attenuation and forward scattering data were consistent with some annealing out of sub-structure, in addition to austenitic grain growth. Finally, there was evidence of lattice softening at the highest temperatures investigated. The data suggest that thicknesses of steel in the range 100–250 mm should be inspectable with a scaled-up system, depending upon various factors such as the presence of oxide scale, provided high power lasers are employed for generation and reception and an optimum bandwidth is chosen.