TY - CONF A1 - Vössing, Konrad A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst T1 - Air-coupled ferroelectret ultrasonic transducers for nondestructive testing of wood in through transmission and reflection mode N2 - The necessity and demand for nondestructive testing of wood-based materials which can automatically scan huge areas of wood is increasing. Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) is used to detect defects and damage without altering the structure permanently. Using through transmission it is possible to detect even small holes and missing adhesive. If only one side of an object is accessible the reflection mode is preferred at the expense of a reduced resolution and penetration depth. Novel ferroelectret transducers with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enable a high-precision structure recognition. The transducers made of cellular polypropylene (PP) are quite suitable for ACU testing due to their extremely low Young’s modulus and low density which result in a favorable acoustic impedance for the transmission of ultrasonic waves between the transducer and air. Thus, defects such as delamination, rot, and cracks can be detected. Promising results were obtained under laboratory conditions with frequencies from 90 kHz to 200 kHz. The advantage of these ACU transducers is that they do not require contact to the sample, are accurate, and cost effective. Ultrasonic quality assurance for wood is an important attempt to increase the acceptance of wooden structures and towards sustainability in civil engineering in general. T2 - International Conference on Sustainable Materials, Systems and Structures CY - Rovinj, Croatia DA - 20.03.2019 KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Cellular polypropylene KW - Wood KW - Nondestructive Testing KW - Defect detection PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47683 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -