8* Other Methods for Transmitting

and Receiving Ultrasound

As well as the piezo-electric effect, other physical properties can be utilized for gen-
erating and receiving ultrasound. Although many of these produce weaker signals
than are obtainable by the piezo-electric effect, they nevertheless offer a number of
advantages which in special cases make their application in the testing of materials
useful. In the case of many of these effects the energy is transmitted by electrical or
magnetic fields which in principle make mechanical contact with the metallic test
piece unnecessary. The conversion into, or from, acoustic energy takes place in the
surface of the workpiece concerned. Compared with the piezo-electric oscillator,
which is coupled to the workpiece, the surface of the work piece forms in the case of
these "direct" methods a part of the acoustic transducer. The direct or dry methods
thus require no coupling medium, and so avoid some of the difficulties analysed in
the paragraph below.
Wet coupling can introduce various disturbances. Due to the interference of the
waves reflected at the two interfaces, the transmissibility of a liquid layer depends
to a great extent on its thickness, and can approach zero if the couplant thickness
equals a quarter wavelength. Consequently it is necessary to reduce the thickness of
the liquid layer to a minimum and to keep it constant. This is not easy if the testing
is carried out at high speed as in some automated installations. When testing hot
workpieces, the difficulty of finding a suitable couplant increases with the tempera-
ture. Finally, a certain amount of wear due to abrasion is unavoidable in all cases
where the probes come into mechanical contact with the workpiece.
An ideal method would allow doing without coupling liquid and operate at an
appreciable distance from the surface, so that the uncertainties of coupling to the
surface could be avoided, as well as wear and tear. In addition such a method could
be used on hot surfaces and minimise the problem of protecting the probe from ex-
cessive heat.
A further advantage of the direct methods results from the fact that there are no
mechanically oscillating components in an electro-acoustic transducer since such
components have a natural frequency which influences the overall frequency re-
sponse. For this reason the direct methods are more suitable for applications where
a resonance-free frequency range is important, for example, for shock waves.
The use of effects other than piezo-electricity for the acoustic transformation
may also prove advantageous for a quite different reason. If different effects are
used for transmitting and receiving the sound, it will be much easier to protect the
receiver from direct cross-coupling.
For instance, if in a given test system an electro magnetic transmitter is used in
conjunction with an electro static receiving system, the receiver does not react to
the magnetic field of the transmitter if the set-up is correct. Consequently, an out-