TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Daschewski, Maxim A1 - Bartusch, Jürgen A1 - Schadow, Florian A1 - Dohse, Elmar A1 - Kreutzbruck, Marc A1 - Weise, Matthias A1 - Beck, Uwe T1 - Novel air-coupled ultrasonic transducer combining the thermoacoustic with the piezoelectric effect N2 - In recent years, there has been an increasing industrial demand for one-sided inspection of various structures by means of air-coupled ultrasonic technique. Lightweight structures based on carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers may have very complex shapes, making air-coupled transmission difficult or even impossible. The inspection of concrete structures is another example where one-sided inspection is required. To address these challenges a new type of transducer for air-coupled pulse-echo inspection was developed, which unites two principles: thermoacoustic emission and piezoelectric reception. The thermoacoustic emitter is a titanium electrode with a thickness of several tens of nanometer. This electrode was deposited onto charged cellular polypropylene, which serves as a piezoelectric receiver. The thermoacoustic transmission is based on a transformation of the thermal energy of an electrically heated electrode into the acoustic energy of an ultrasonic wave. Thermoacoustic emitters provide resonance-free behaviour and thus extremely broadband pulses. Charged cellular polypropylene is piezoelectric due to the polarization of its cells and it is well matched to air, with a Young modulus in the order of magnitude of MPa. In this contribution we present some pulse-echo measurements with the first prototypes of the combined thermoacoustic-piezoelectric transducer. T2 - World Conference of Non-Destructive Testing CY - Munich, Germany DA - 13.6.2016 KW - Thermoacoustic KW - Piezoelectric KW - Ultrasonic transducer KW - Ferroelectret PY - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-367151 VL - 158 SP - Mo.1.F.4, 1 EP - 6 AN - OPUS4-36715 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Bartusch, Jürgen A1 - Schadow, Florian A1 - Köppe, Enrico A1 - Dohse, Elmar ED - Chimenti, D. E. ED - Bond, L. J. T1 - Focusing of ferroelectret air-coupled ultrasound transducers N2 - Air-coupled ultrasound has been applied increasingly as a non-destructive testing method for lightweight construction in recent years. It is particularly appropriate for composite materials being used in automotive and aviation industry. Air-coupled ultrasound transducers mostly consist of piezoelectric materials and matching layers. However, their fabrication is challenging and their signal-to-noise ratio often not sufficient for many testing requirements. To enhance the efficiency, air-coupled ultrasound transducers made of cellular polypropylene have been developed. Because of its small density and sound velocity, this piezoelectric ferroelectret matches the small acoustic impedance of air much better than matching layers applied in conventional transducers. In our contribution, we present two different methods of spherical focusing of ferroelectret transducers for the further enhancement of their performance in NDT applications. Measurements on carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) samples and on metal adhesive joints performed with commercially available focused air-coupled ultrasound transducers are compared to measurements executed with self-developed focused ferroelectret transducers. T2 - 42nd Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation CY - Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA DA - 26.07.2015 KW - Ferroelectret KW - Transducer KW - Air-coupled KW - Ultrasonic KW - Focusing PY - 2016 SP - 080001 PB - AIP Publishing CY - Melville, NY, USA AN - OPUS4-35955 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Bartusch, Jürgen A1 - Schadow, Florian A1 - Beck, Uwe A1 - Daschewski, M. A1 - Kreutzbruck, M. T1 - Airborne ultrasonic systems for one-sided inspection using thermoacoustic transmitters N2 - Airborne ultrasonic inspection is performed in through transmission, where the test piece (e.g. adhesive joint or polymer-based composite plate) is placed between the transmitter and the receiver. However, many structures with difficult shapes allow only one-sided inspection. The strong reflection of the signal from the surface overshadows the signals from the inside, so that broadband pulses are required. Thermoacoustic transmission, where the thermal energy of an electrically heated electrode is transformed into the acoustic energy of an ultrasonic wave, opens the possibility to excite broadband pulses and thus to inspect objects with one-sided access. We present various thermoacoustic transducers consisting of an electrically conductive film on a solid substrate. The first type of transducer is a transmitter with an indium-tin-oxide electrode on a glass substrate combined with a laser Doppler vibrometer as a receiver. The second type of transducer combines thermoacoustic transmission and piezoelectric reception, having a titanium electrode as a transmitter deposited onto charged cellular polypropylene serving as a piezoelectric receiver. Using a focusing thermoacoustic transmitter and a separate cellular polypropylene receiver, a through-transmission inspection of a 4 mm thick CFRP test piece with inserts as small as 1 mm was performed. The same emitter and a laser vibrometer as a receiver were used for a one-sided inspection of a Plexiglas block with a cross hole at 15 mm depth. A twin probe consisting of a thermoacoustic transmitter on a cellular polypropylene receiver was applied to a profile measurement on a step wedge with flat bottom holes. The smallest detected diameter of a flat bottom hole was 1 mm. Sound pressure level above 140dB was achieved with each of these transmitters. Thermoacoustic transmitters enable a step towards one-sided air-coupled ultrasonic inspection. T2 - IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium CY - Tours, France DA - 18.09.2016 KW - Airborne KW - Air-coupled KW - Ultrasonic transducer KW - Thermoacoustic KW - Ferroelectret PY - 2016 SN - 978-1-4673-9897-8 SN - 1948-5719 SP - (online publication) 1 EP - 4 AN - OPUS4-37620 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Caldeira, Rui A1 - Bartusch, Jürgen A1 - Schadow, Florian A1 - Vössing, Konrad A1 - Kupnik, M. T1 - Air-coupled ultrasonic ferroelectret receiver with additional bias voltage N2 - High sensitivity is an important requirement for air-coupled ultrasonic sensors applied to materials testing. With a lower acoustic impedance than any piezoelectric material, charged cellular polypropylene (PP) offers better matching to air with a similar piezoelectric coefficient. The piezoelectric properties of charged cellular PP originate from their polarization, creating permanent internal voltage. The sensitivity of the sensor can be increased by applying additional dc bias voltage, as it has been done already for transmitters. This work presents the first ultrasonic sensor based on charged cellular PP including a high-voltage module providing dc bias voltage up to 2 kV. This bias voltage led to an increase in the signal-to-noise ratio of up to 15 ± 1 dB. The measurement of the received signal depending on the applied bias voltage is proposed as a new method of determining the internal voltage of ferroelectrets. The sensor combined with a cellular PP transmitter was applied to nondestructive testing of a rotor blade segment and glued-laminated timber, enabling imaging of the internal structure of these specimens with a thickness around 4 cm. KW - Acoustic sensors KW - Ferroelectret KW - Nondestructive testing KW - Ultrasonic imaging KW - Ultrasonic transducers PY - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2019.2925666 SN - 0885-3010 SN - 1525-8955 VL - 66 IS - 10 SP - 1600 EP - 1605 PB - IEEE AN - OPUS4-49131 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Schadow, Florian A1 - Nielow, Dustin A1 - Trappe, Volker T1 - Air-coupled ultrasonic ferroelectret transducers with additional bias voltage for testing of composite structures N2 - Common air-coupled transducers for non-destructive testing consist of a piezocomposite material and several matching layers. Better acoustical matching to air is achieved by transducers based on charged cellular polypropylene (PP). This material has about hundred times lower acoustic impedance than any piezocomposite, having about the same piezoelectric coefficient. The piezoelectric properties of cellular PP are caused by the polarization of air cells. Alternatively, a ferroelectret receiver can be understood as a capacitive microphone with internal polarization creating permanent internal voltage. The sensitivity of the receiver can be increased by applying additional bias voltage. We present an ultrasonic receiver based on cellular PP including a high-voltage module providing bias voltage up to 2 kV. The application of bias voltage increased the signal by 12 to 15 dB with only 1 dB increase of the noise. This receiver was combined with a cellular PP transmitter in through transmission to inspect several test specimens consisting of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer face sheets and a porous closed-cell PVC core. These test specimens were inspected before and after load. Fatigue cracks in the porous PVC core and some fatigue damage in the face sheets were detected. These test specimens were originally developed to emulate a rotor blade segment of a wind power plant. Similar composite materials are used in lightweight aircrafts for the general aviation. The other inspected test specimen was a composite consisted of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer face sheets and a wooden core. The structure of the wooden core could be detected only with cellular PP transducers, while commercial air-coupled transducers lacked the necessary sensitivity. Measured on a 4-mm thick carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer plate, cellular PP transducers with additional bias voltage achieved a 32 dB higher signal-to-noise ratio than commercial air-coupled transducers. T2 - 10th International Symposium on NDT in Aerospace CY - Dresden, Germany DA - 26.10.2018 KW - Airborne ultrasonic testing KW - Air-coupled ultrasonic testing KW - Ferroelectret KW - Composites KW - Transducers PY - 2018 SP - 1 EP - 6 AN - OPUS4-46657 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -