Effects of the Oxide Coating Thickness on the Small Flaw Sizing Using an Ultrasonic Test Technique

Resumen

When magnesium alloys are tested using ultrasonic techniques, their oxide coating will affect the transmitted ultrasonic energy and the accuracy of the flaw sizing. In this work, the effects of the coating thickness on the flaw sizing are investigated. An ultrasonic measurement model is employed to predict the flaw response signal, and the reflected and transmitted ultrasonic energy in the coated surface are corrected by modifying the reflection and transmission coefficients related to the effects of the coating thickness. The effectiveness of these coefficients and the ultrasonic measurement model are verified through experiments. With the correction of the coating thickness effects, the flaw-sizing curves predicted using the ultrasonic measurement model are provided. The flaws in magnesium alloy specimens with different coating thicknesses are tested, and the determined flaw sizes from these curves agree well with the actual sizes, which reveals the effectiveness of the proposed work. This work provides an effective tool to improve the flaw sizing performance using ultrasonic techniques in practical applications.