Materials Acoustic Properties Analysis Software

User Guide

2016.06.20

By E. Ginzel and B. Turnbull

Introduction
Many authors have described analysis of materials using acoustic techniques [1,2,3,4,5]. Methods for
determining acoustic velocity and attenuation can be found in a variety of standards [6,7].

In most universities, students develop their own software tools to report on the acoustic characteristics
of materials. Waveforms are captured and analysed for bulk and phase velocities as well as the
relationship of attenuation to freqeuncy. So as to make the analysis feasible to a wider population of
nondestructive testing users, we have attempted to assemble a template for acoustic analyses in the
ubiquitous Microsoft Excel®. There are of course limitations in using this spreadsheet format. There is a
chance that some versions of the software will not be compatible with the format we have selected.
The way in which calculations are done make the computations slower than they might be if using
dedicated software.

In spite of the limitations, we think that the convenience of having easily-accessible software to import
and analysis A-scan data will be useful to many.

Step-by-step

Worksheets
The template comes as a blank Excel file with several worksheets. Some sheets are simply templates
that the user will not require access to. Template Data and Template Spectrum are layouts that have
cell locations that are filled automatically after they have been copied and renamed by the macros. To
prevent accidental changes the templates are Protected and the newly generated worksheets need to
be unprotected once they have been generated.
Organising the Files
To start a project we recommend that you organise the files in a directory dedicated to the material
being analysed.

Copy the Materials Acoustic Properties Analysis software (MAPAS) xlsm template and paste it into a
directory that you have prepared for the analysis of a specific material. Then rename the template file
with a name that you can relate to the material being analysed.

Typically digital ultrasonic instruments incorporate software that permits the captured A-scan waveform
to be exported. The MAPAS template requires a form of A-scan data that uses columns of time and
amplitude. This is typically found in txt or csv formats.

The user of the template would ensure that the waveform data is placed in the same directory as the re-
named template.

Here is an example of the contents of a directory for Brass 360.

In the example above, the xlsm file is seen together with the data files. Data files included are for a
transmit-receive (T-R) setup where the waterpath is collected and then the sample is inserted between
the Tx and Rx probes perpendicular to the beam to obtain the compression (longitudinal) mode
transmitted. The sample is then rotated to an angle just past the first critical angle where the shear
mode can be seen and the signal captured.

Test Description
Once the data files and template xlsm files are assembled in the directory, open the template file and
make sure that the active content is toggled on:

Then go to the first tab (worksheet) called Test description. There you see three main areas labelled
Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3.

Fill in the appropriate parameters in Step 1. Density, Thickness and Water Temperature are critical for
other calculations. The Data Units for the receiver are used to scale the amplitude plots in the
calculations. In the example the setup was for Brass360 analysis and used a Transmit/Receive
configuration. As a result that is the “Type” of test we must identify in the pull down option in the top
right (the other option is Pulse-echo).

Some of the cells will simply be for record-keeping. Details of the probe and pulser-receiver settings are
not critical to the calculations but may be useful for repeating the setup in future. Also, you may need
to make note that one gain setting was used for the waterpath while a higher gain was used with the
sample present. This difference would be used to correct amplitudes in the Data worksheets where a
gain factor is provided.

Importing Data
Step 2 on this page involves importing the data files to a separate Worksheet. The software is
configured to handle data that is tab separated with time in the first column and amplitude in the
second column. This is the case for software providing A-scans in “txt” file format. To use the automatic
import feature of the template we simply type the name of each of the files in the yellow highlighted
cell (including the extension) and then press the “Import File” button.

E.g. Enter the name of an A-scan file in the yellow cell (I15) and then press the “Import File” button with
the left mouse button.
This automatically imports the time and amplitude data from the file and pastes it in the first available
columns in the Worksheet called “Raw Data Input”.

You see the process occurring and the values being pasted (Column “A” stores the file name Columns B
and C have the values of the first data file and Cell C3 of Raw Data Input sheet and Cell J38 of the Test
Description worksheet stores the number of data files that are imported. When automatically imported,
the Raw Data Input sheet displays the values in columns:

Data from subsequent A-scan files are imported to columns E and F, then H and I, etc.

Once the data has been put in the columns in Raw Data Input, the software returns to the Test
Description page and you see the name of the imported file (s) starting at cell I20.

For the example using Brass360 there are 3 A-scan files used in the through-transmission technique:

Having imported the A-scan data to the template we must next prepare a page for each gated signal.

Step 3 on the Test Description page will generate the Data pages for the various waveforms that are to
be used for the analysis. The waveforms will be re-generated in a new Worksheet. The worksheets for
this use the “Template Data” to put the time and amplitude data into a sheet that will be used to select
the gated regions for processing.
If using T-R mode, a reference time must be established from the time of travel in the coupling medium.
When using distilled water, the default configuration is suitable. This will establish the reference time
from a peak signal in the waveform identified in the “Longitudinal Bulk Speed of Sound in Water”
section of the worksheet. The default uses the temperature formula for calculating the separation of
the Tx and Rx probes from the value of the water temperature entered in Step 1. Alternatively we can
enter a reference value manually using a measured distance at a specified reference time.

Each of the signals that will be used in the computations will have a name assigned to them so we can
generate a separate Data Worksheet for the waveform.

For the signal that was captured with just the waterpath and no sample, we might call it “Water”. For
the waveform that was captured with the sample perpendicular to the beam we would typically use that
for the Longitudinal signal and perhaps call it Long. For the signal obtained with the sample rotated we
could call it Shear. Upon entering the name of the data sheet in the “Pulse Name” we then get a
message that the Sheet does not exist. To generate the Data Sheet for that pulse we press the “Create
Data Sheet” button.

In the section for the “Shear Bulk Speed of Sound in Sample” geometry parameters can be entered in
the Test Description page in the Geometry section with the “Angle and Offset” option selected.

Angle and Offset are obtained by a goniometer rotating the sample and a linear slide moving the
receiver probe:
Alternatively the soundpath can be entered manually.

Note that the angle and Offset values entered in this section on the Test Description page will be
transferred to the appropriate cells on the Data Sheet that is generated. The values used in the Bulk
Velocity calculations on the Material Properties worksheet are taken from the Data worksheet.
Therefore, any subsequent changes made to the angle should be made on the Data worksheet.

Working with Data Worksheets

Upon pressing “Create Data Sheet” a separate sheet is cloned from the protected Data Template sheet
and given the name indicated in the “Pulse Name” for that signal.

We can then go to the Data Page for each of the Pulses we have identified a separate name for.

E.g. for the Waterpath Data we should see a Yellow cell named Waterpath and under it a pull down
option to select the file source. Select the A-scan file that has been identified in the list (generated
when we imported the A-scan files as part of the Test Description). For the example here, we select the
file called 16-04-27-waterpath 2 at 18C.txt.

This populates the cells in the sheet for the Waterpath Data and plots the A-scan.
This step also allows you to adjust the offsets in case the waveform is not nicely centred and we can also
adjust the amplitude (using the “multiplier”) if one signal was captured at a higher (or lower) gain
setting than the reference.

Check to ensure that the temperature in the Water Temp (cell B10) is correct.

If you are carrying out multiple trials to obtain statistical validity, you can keep track of the test in Cell
B9.

Step 2 on this page narrows the time of interest so that we are looking only at the waveform and not all
the noise before and after. This is essentially setting the FFT-processing gate. You can see the gated
region on the Raw Data plot of the total waveform as a green line.

Step 2 has you simply define the start and end points of the gate (in cells B21 and B22). There is a tool
to select the “Reference Time”. This can be from the Maximum amplitude value in the gated region, or
you can pull down other options including minimum, zero and manually set times.

In the example we used the minimum peak amplitude time and it is seen as a Green dot on the
expanded (gated) waveform.

When you are satisfied with the gated signal, you then press the button in Step 3 to create a new
Worksheet. The name of the new worksheet is the same as the Datasheet with “Spectrum” added.
Spectrum Worksheets
The process of selecting the gated signal is repeated for each signal you must use. After the signals are
identified and the Spectrum sheets generated you will have new tabs at the bottom of the Excel
workbook:

Now open the tab for one of the Spectrum pages. There you will see the waveform reproduced and you
can select the plotted frequency range of interest. This is not critical because it can be adjusted after
the FFT calculations.

Just prior to calculation of the FFT you can make other adjustments and use more than the
recommended minimum data points or shift the time or add more zero padding points. We used the
default values for the Brass sample.
N.B. In order to ensure that comparisons can be made you must ensure that all the FFT analyses contain
the same number of points! In the window indentified as Step 3b on the Spectrum Worksheet, you will
note the number of points in window is given a value with a green background. In this example it is 51.
Excel requires that FFT computations are done on a number of points that is a power of 2. Therefore
the software will default at a value that is double the next highest power of 2. In our example with the
waveform containing 51 points, the next highest value that is a power of 2 is 64. 64 is the minimum
number of points we could use in this example. For our template the recommended number of points
to use is twice the minimum (i.e. 128 points in our example).

As long as you have the Analysis packs loaded in Excel you can now simply Press the Run FFT button
(after you have removed the protection from the Spectrum Worksheet).

This automatically calls the Fourier Analysis in the Analysis Tools and uses Cell O37 as the start point of
the FFT output. This can be done manually by opening the Data Analysis Tools list and selecting the
Fourier Analysis.
In our example the probes are relatively highly damped so have a good range of frequencies over which
the frequency domain data should be valid. There is a setting for the “Set dB cutoff” in Step 3b. This
calculates the requested range of frequencies for the Normalised Power Spectrum to be -6dB as the
default; but this can be adjusted by the user and it applies to the plot only (not to the computations) so
you can adjust it after the FFT is calculated. The frequency range values seen in the Green-coloured cells
is blank until the FFT has been calculated and will be filled in with the value based on the number
entered in the yellow-coloured cell. The default is “-6” and it should always be a negative value entered
in that cell.

The FFT calculation requires time...about 2-3 minutes depending on the number of samples you have
selected. When the computation is completed you get 3 new plots on the Spectrum page:
Plots are provided for the Amplitude Spectrum, the “Unwrapped Phase Spectrum” and the normalised
Power spectrum.

This processing of the waveform is repeated for each of the signals (Waterpath, Long and Shear).

Comparing Time and Frequency Domains

After the processing has been completed for the waveforms there are no more calculations to be done
and we should be able to just review the plots and calculated values. This is done in separate
worksheets:

In the Worksheet called “Phase Velocity and Attenuation” three plots are provided;

Phase-Velocity

Attenuation (in units of dB/mm) as calculated from the Kraemers-Kronig relationship

Attenuation (in units of dB/mm) as calculated from the normalised power spectra
Outside of the useful range of the probe frequency spectrum the values calculated will probably be very
unreliable. In the useful range of frequencies, our initial assessments have indicated that reasonable
values are obtained for phase velocities and Attenuation using the Power spectra; however, the
attenuation calculated by the Kramers-Kronig relation have not been as close published values and do
not usually match those calculated by the Power spectra.

We have found that the plotted phase velocities are often significantly different from the bulk velocity
results. Best results are achieved by having a high sampling rate, wide bandwidth, using a large amount
of zero padding in the FFT for better phase interpolation, and doing a circular shift to the centre of the
waveform. For most of the data sets we used, the number of points in the FFT within the 6dB cutoff
window was somewhere from 5 to 10, which is relatively low. Phase unwrapping requires that a strong
signal is present at all frequencies from 0 up to the frequency of interest.

When you are getting a big jump between the phase velocities and the bulk velocities, what it means is
that, even at the lowest recorded frequency, there is already a significant difference between the phase
plot for water and the phase plot for the sample.

Comparing the time domain data simply plots the full A-scans for the files you select from the pull
downs. You can also adjust the region of time to display on the Time axis by entering times in C11 and
C12. If the pull down option does not display a waveform simply type the name of the data pages in the
Yellow cells.
Comparing the frequency domain plots is handled the same way as the Time domain plots:
Material Properties Summary Sheet
Finally, the calculated values of modulii and coefficients are provided in a separate page.

This data is calculated from the Density (input in the Test Description page) and the calculated bulk
velocities. As an information aid, the velocity and impedance of water as a function of temperature and
frequency is provided as well on this page. The brown dot on the curves for water indicates where the
operating point is for your input value (in this case the values were obtained at 18°C).

The calculations are reasonable for metals but one might find them to overestimate the values
published for polymers; e.g.

Brass 360
Poisson’s ratio Bulk Modulus Young’s Modulus Shear Modulus
Published 0.31 140 GPa 97 GPa 37 GPa
UT Calc 0.34 113 GPa 111 GPa 41 GPa

HDPE
Poisson’s ratio Bulk Modulus Young’s Modulus Shear Modulus
Published 0.4 4.57 GPa 0.3 GPa to 1 GPa 0.21 to 0.85 GPa
UT Calc 0.37 4.5 GPa 3.7 GPa 1.3 GPa
Using CSV formatted waveform data and Pulse-echo analysis
The template has been configured to easily permit importing waveforms that have been saved in txt
data format. Although some ultrasonic equipment manufacturers use the txt format with tab separated
columns; other manufacturers provide the waveform data in csv format. CSV denotes “comma
separated values”.

To use data from software that has stored the waveform in CSV format requires a slight variation on the
input and the automatic features of the template cannot be used.

Having opened the template and saved it with the appropriate name, the next step if using CSV data
would be to create a new worksheet. The CSV file is then opened and the columns of data copied and
pasted in the new Worksheet. It is recommended to copy the data into an appropriately named sheet
and make note of the cell reference where the data starts. In the following example, this would be cell
A2:

A B C
1 usec Volts
2 125 -0.01563
3 125.01 0.007813
4 125.02 0.007813
… … …

Note that the cell references the first cell with a number representing time, not the cell with the
heading. Cells with time data must be immediately to the left of the cells with voltage (or other
amplitude units) readout data.

To illustrate the process we have created a new worksheet called “A-scanData” and titled the columns A
and B “Time” and “Amplitude”. Data imported is from a pulse-echo setup on a steel step-wedge.

The data was copied and pasted as below:

Since the data collected is a single A-scan with multiple echoes from a longitudinal pulse, we enter
Echo1 and Echo2 in the Test Description window for the Longitudinal Bulk Speed and create the data
sheets:
In the newly created Data worksheet called “Echo1 Data” fill in Cells E3 and E4 with the worksheet name
that you created for the pasted CSV data and the cell that

This locates the data in the columns in the added Worksheet and imports them to the Echo1 Data sheet.
The waveform is displayed and the gate can be positioned as was done for the T-R setup.

Viewing the echoes captured, we select the first one as Echo 1 and place the gate at either end of the
useful waveform:

Echo2 is treated similarly

At this point the template has enough information to calculate the bulk longitudinal velocity and it is
calculated in the Material Properties worksheet:

If instead of the first and second echoes, we had selected the first and third echo, the software would
need to be adjusted accordingly. This is done by re positioning the gate in the Echo2 Data sheet And
changing the Echo number in Cell B7 to “3” from the default “2”:
This can have a small effect on the assessed velocity. In this case the use of the second echo provided a
velocity of 5947m/s and using the extra distance and time to the third echo results in 5926m/s):
Comments
There is a brief review of the various features in the template in the Worksheet called Documentation.

Note that the MAPAS template is primarily intended to use with the waveforms from an immersion
setup it can be used with multiples from a contact test. In both cases, the user should be aware of
aspects of the conditions that can introduce errors.

For contact testing the zero time at the point of entry is not possible to discern in the entry signal noise
so the backwall and subsequent multiples are used. In immersion testing the entry surface is usually
easy to identify, especially when there is a high acoustic impedance difference between the water and
tested material. But this acoustic impedance difference results in a phase change. If using the water-
sample interface as one of the reference points it should be kept in mind that the sample-water
interfaces that follow will have the opposite phase and the reference positions selected for the bulk
velocity need to be identified appropriately.

When the test setup is using a contact probe and the sample is air-backed, the reflection coefficients are
essentially 1. To obtain a reasonable estimate of attenuation this can be accounted for on the
worksheet where Phase Velocity and Attenuation are plotted. There is a pull-down option in Cell E6 that
allows the toggling of the use of the Transmission-Reflection coefficients. You would use the
coefficients when there is water on both sides of the sample. For air-backed contact work you would
not use the coefficients.

The accuracy of this template is not guaranteed. Many variations in the test setup can cause noticeable
differences in calculated values. A small difference in water temperature might alter the calculated
velocity by 50m/s in the T-R setup. Similarly, when assessing bulk shear velocity, a difference of only 1°
rotation could result in a difference of 50m/s for the calculated value.

It is common to repeat the test 3-4 times, capturing a new A-scan on each trial. Results of several trials
would be averaged to obtain a “typical” value. This will help users understand that published values for
a specific material are not absolute but can vary over a range due to many factors including material
variations and test parameters.

The sources of the equations used to provide modulii and the values of water velocity and acoustic
impedance are provided on the Documentation worksheet.
Acknowledgements
Many people have helped and inspired this work. We would like to thank Professor Anthony Sinclair at
the UNDEL Lab at the University of Toronto and his students Izella Zalates, Jill Bond, Seoho Lee and
Mario Zuber. Helpful advice was also received from Mohammad Marvasti and Jonathan Lessage of
Eclipse Scientific. Thanks also for their observations and helpful comments to Piotr Wiciak at the
University of Waterloo, Roberto Otero at Fundación Instituto de Ingeniería, Centro de Tecnología de
Materiales, Unidad de Ensayos No Destructivos, Caracas, Venezuela and Carlos Correia GRUPO
ENDALLOY C.A., Caracas, Venezuela. We would like to also thank Bill Blanshan at AUT Solutions for his
assistance in providing hardware and software that allowed us to capture waveforms in csv format.

References
1. Nondestructive Testing Handbook, Second edition, Volume seven, American Society fop
Nondestructive Testing, 1991
2. Ultrasonic Testing of Materials, Dr. rer. nat. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Josef Krautkrämer, Dr. rer. nat. Herbert
Krautkrämer, Sringer Verlag, 1983
3. Ultrasonics Fundamentals, Technology Applications, Second Edition, Ensminger, D., Marcel
Dekker, Inc., 1988
4. Ultrasonic Measurement Methods, Edited by Thurston, R.N and Pierce, A.D., Physical Acoustic
Series volume XIX, Academic Press, 1990.
5. Approximate Material Properties in Isotropic Materials, Selfridge, A., IEEE Transactions of Sonics
and Ultrasonics, Vol. SU-32, No. 3, May, 1985,
6. ASTM E494, Standard Practice for Measuring Ultrasonic Velocity in Materials, ASTM Annual
Book of Standards, Vol. 03.03
7. ASTM E614, Standard Practice for the Measurement of the Apparent Attenuation of
Longitudinal Ultrasonic Waves by Immersion Method ASTM, Annual Book of Standards, Vol.
03.03