What is this method?
Material analysis testing is an attempt to determine the basic properties of materials in terms that can be useful for designing structures, interfaces, and a variety of other things. By knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the material, designers can best utilize materials for functions and purposes where they are properly suited. Additionally, this type of testing is one of the primary tools used to evaluate alternative materials, suppliers, percentage of recycled materials allowable, failure analysis for forensic work, and a variety of other reasons.
Why is this method?
Materials analysis is necessary to characterize and evaluate the quality and performance of materials. It supports innovation in industries such as engineering and manufacturing. Materials such as polymers, plastics, composites, metals, alloys, ceramics, paper, and board have diverse properties that impact performance, therefore an understanding of your material’s properties is essential to determine if your material or product is suitable for its intended use or to rectify a failure.
When is this used?
nondestructive testing is a versatile technique that can be applied to a wide variety of material analysis applications. While ultrasonic NDT is perhaps better known in its more common applications for thickness gaging, flaw detection, and acoustic imaging, high frequency sound waves can also be used to discriminate and quantify some basic mechanical, structural, or compositional properties of solids and liquids. Ultrasonic material analysis is based on a simple principle of physics: the motion of any wave will be affected by the medium through which it travels. Thus, changes in one or more of four easily measurable parameters associated with the passage of a high frequency sound wave through a material — transit time, attenuation, scattering, and frequency content — can often be correlated with changes in physical properties such as hardness, elastic modulus, density, homogeneity, or grain structure.