The inspection of anisotropic single-crystal components using a 2-D ultrasonic array

Single-crystal metal alloys are used extensively in the manufacture of jet engine components for their excellent mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. The inspection of these components using 2-D ultrasonic arrays potentially allows the detection of subsurface defects in three-dimensions from one inspection location. Such methods are not currently suitable for the inspection of single-crystal components because the high elastic anisotropy of single-crystal materials causes directional variation in ultrasonic waves. In this paper, a model of wave propagation in anisotropic material is used to correct an ultrasonic imaging algorithm and is applied to a single-crystal test specimen. For this corrected-algorithm, the orientation of the crystal in a specimen must be known before the inspection. Using the same ultrasonic array to measure the orientation and perform the defect inspection offers the most practical solution. Therefore, potential crystallographic orientation methods using 2-D ultrasonic arrays are also developed and evaluated.