Ultrasonics

Dr. Prabal Pratap Singh Bhadauria

Assistant Professor, TIET, Patiala
 Sound Wave:
Longitudinal wave
Direction of propagation

Direction of oscillation

Travels : Longitudinal Wave Motion

Form of Energy : Emitted by a vibrating body
Propagation : In all directions

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 Classification of Sound Waves: Depends upon Frequency
Divided into 3 groups.
Description Frequency range Hz Example

Infrasound 0 - 20 Earth quake

Audible sound 20 – 20,000 Speech, music
Ultrasound > 20,000 to 5M Bat, Quartz crystal

The word ultrasonic combines the Latin roots ultra, meaning

‘beyond’ and sonic, or sound.
Ultrasonic refers to any study or application of sound waves that are
higher frequency than the human audible range.
Generally these waves are called as high frequency waves.

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 Ultrasonic waves
Rhinoceroses use infrasonic
frequencies as low as 5 Hz to
call one another.
Humans 20-20K Hz
Cats 100-32K Hz
Dogs 40-46K Hz
Horses 31-40K Hz
Bats use US frequencies up to 100 kHz for
locating food sources and navigating. Elephants 16-12K Hz
Cattle 16-40K Hz
Bats 1K-150K Hz
Grasshoppers 100-50K Hz
Rodents 1K-100K Hz
Whales, Dolphins 70-150K Hz
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 Properties of ultrasonic waves
• They have a high energy content.
• Just like ordinary sound waves, ultrasonic waves get
reflected, refracted and absorbed.
• They show negligible diffraction due to their small
wavelength. Hence can be transmitted over large
distances without any appreciable loss of energy.
• Intense ultrasonic radiation has a disruptive effect in
liquids by causing bubbles to be formed.
• If an arrangement is made to form stationary waves of
ultrasonic in a liquid, it serves as a diffraction grating
(called acoustic grating).
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 Applications of ultrasonic waves
• The broad sectors of society that regularly apply
ultrasonic technology are the medical community,
industry, the military and private citizens.

• The field of ultrasonic have applications for

– imaging
– Detection
– Navigation

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 Ultrasonics Production
Ultrasonic waves are produced by the following methods.

(1) Magnetostriction method

(2) Piezoelectric method

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 Magnetostriction method
Principle: Magnetostriction effect
When a magnetic field is applied parallel to the length of a
ferromagnetic rod made of ferromagnetic materials such as iron or
nickel, a small elongation or contraction occurs in its length.

The change in length of rod depends upon

i) the strength of the magnetic field,
ii) the nature of the ferromagnetic materials
iii) does not depend of the direction of the field. 8
 Magnetostriction method
• AB is a rod of ferromagnetic materials Fe or Ni.
• The alternating magnetic field is generated by electronic oscillator.
• The coil L1 wound on the right hand portion of the rod along with a
variable capacitor C.
• This forms the resonant circuit of the collector tuned oscillator.
The frequency of oscillator is controlled by the variable capacitor.
• The coil L2 wound on the left hand portion of the rod is connected
to the base circuit. The coil L2 acts as feed –back loop.

Used to produce low

frequency Ultrasonic
waves
f  1 / 2 L1C1

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 Magnetostriction method
The fundamental frequency of vibrating rod is given by
1 Y
f =
2l 
where l = length of the rod
Y = Young’s modulus of the rod material and
 = density of rod material
• The capacitor C1 is so adjusted such that the frequency of the
oscillatory circuit is equal to natural frequency of the rod and
thus resonance takes place.
• Now the rod vibrates longitudinally with maximum amplitude
and generates ultrasonic waves from its ends.

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 Magnetostriction method
Advantages
1. The design of this oscillator is very simple and its production
cost is low
2. At low ultrasonic frequencies, the large power output can be
produced without the risk of damage of the oscillatory circuit.

Disadvantages
1. It has low upper frequency limit and cannot generate ultrasonic
frequency above 3000 kHz (i.e. 3MHz).
2. The frequency of oscillations depends on temperature.
3. There will be losses of energy due to hysteresis and eddy current.

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 PIEZOELECTRIC EFFECT
If mechanical pressure is applied to one pair of opposite faces of
certain crystals like quartz, equal and opposite electrical charges
appear across its other faces. This is called as piezo-electric effect.
The converse of piezo electric effect is also true. If an electric field is
applied to one pair of faces, the corresponding changes in the
dimensions of the other pair of faces of the crystal are produced. This
is known as inverse piezo electric effect or electrostriction

Piezoelectric materials:
titanates of barium and
lead, lead zirconate
(PbZrO3), ammonium
dihydrogen phosphate
(NH4H2PO4), and quartz
(natural crystal).
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Quartz crystals
Quartz crystals

The piezoelectric effect can only be achieved

when small plates perpendicular either to x-
axis or y-axis are cut out of the crystal.

These are called x-cut and y-cut quartz

crystals, respectively.
x-cut crystals are used for the production and detection of
longitudinal ultrasonic waves,
y-cut crystals are used for the production and reception of
transverse ultrasonic waves. These are seldom used in industry
 Piezo-Electric method
• The coils L1 and L2 of base tuned electronic oscillator circuit form
the primary of a transformer T.
• The secondary (L3) of a transformer which is inductively coupled
to the electronics oscillator is connected to two metal plates where
the quartz crystal is placed.
• The coil L1 and variable capacitor C1 form the tank circuit of the
oscillator.

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 Piezo-Electric method
• When H.T. battery is switched on, the oscillator produces high
frequency alternating voltages with a frequency.
1
f 
2 L1C1
• Due to the transformer action, an oscillatory e.m.f. is induced in the
coil L3. This high frequency alternating voltages are fed on the metal
plates.
• Inverse piezo-electric effect takes place and the crystal contracts and
expands alternatively. The crystal is set into mechanical vibrations.
• The frequency of the vibration is given by

1 Y Where l = thickness of the crystal

f = Y = Young’s modulus of the crystal axis chosen
2l  ρ = density of the crystal.

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 Piezo-Electric method

Advantages
• Ultrasonic frequencies as high as 500 MHz can be obtained
with this arrangement.
• The output of this oscillator is very high.
• It is not affected by temperature and humidity.

Disadvantages
• The cost of piezo electric quartz is very high
• The cutting and shaping of quartz crystal are very complex.

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 Numerical
A quartz crystal of thickness 1 mm is vibrating at resonance.
Calculate the fundamental frequency. Given Y for quartz = 7.9
x 1010 Nm-2 and ρ for quartz = 2650 kg m-3.

What should be the minimum length of an iron rod to generate

ultrasonic wave of frequency 0.03 MHz? Given Y for iron =
1.15 x 1011 Nm-2 and ρ of iron = 7.23 x 103 kg m-3.

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 Detection of Ultrasonic
1. Waves
Piezoelectric Detector
Piezoelectric effect can also be used to detect ultrasonic waves. If
ultrasonic waves comprising of compressions and rarefactions are
allowed to fall upon a quartz crystal a certain potential difference is
developed across the faces which after amplification by a value
amplifier can be used to detect ultrasonic waves.

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 Detection of Ultrasonic Waves
2. Kundt’s Tube Method
Kundt’s tube is a long glass tube supported horizontally with a air
column in it when the ultrasonic waves are passed the Kundt’s tube,
the lycopodium powder (flash powder) sprinkled in the tube collects
in the form of heaps at the nodal points and is blown off at the
antinodal points.

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3. Sensitive flame Method
When a narrow sensitive flame is moved in a medium where ultrasonic
waves are present, the flame remains stationary at nodes. At the
positions of antinodes, the flame flickers because there is a change in
pressure. In this way, positions of nodes and antinodes can be found out
in the medium. The average distance between the two adjacent nodes is
equal to half the wavelength.
4. Thermal Detector
This is the most commonly used method of detection of ultrasonic
waves. In this method, a fine platinum wire is used. This wire is moved
through the medium.
At the position of antinodes, due to alternate compressions and
rarefactions, adiabatic changes in temperature takes place. The
resistance of the platinum wire changes with respect to time.

The change in resistance can be

detected with the help of metre
bridge arrangement. At the
position of the nodes, the
temperature remains constant.
This will be indicated by the
undisturbed balanced position of
the metre bridge.
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Applications of Ultrasonic Waves

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 1. Detection of flaws in metals
(Non Destructive Testing –NDT)

• Ultrasonic waves are used to detect the

presence of flaws or defects in the form of
cracks, blowholes porosity etc., in the
internal structure of a material.

• By sending out
ultrasonic beam and by
measuring the time
interval of the reflected
beam, flaws in the metal
block can be determined.

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 1. Detection of flaws in metals
(Non Destructive Testing –NDT)

• Ultrasonic waves are used to detect the

presence of flaws or defects in the form of
cracks, blowholes porosity etc., in the
internal structure of a material.

• By sending out
ultrasonic beam and by
measuring the time
interval of the reflected
beam, flaws in the metal
block can be determined.

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 2. Ultrasonic Drilling
• Ultrasonics are used for making holes in very
hard materials like glass, diamond etc.
• For this purpose, a suitable drilling tool bit is
fixed at the end of a powerful ultrasonic
generator.
• Some slurry (a thin paste of carborundum
powder and water) is made to flow between the
bit and the plate in which the hole is to be made
• Ultrasonic generator causes the tool bit to move
up and down very quickly and the slurry
particles below the bit just remove some
material from the plate.
• This process continues and a hole is drilled in
the plate.
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 3. Ultrasonic soldering
• Metals like aluminium cannot be directly soldered. However, it is
possible to solder such metals by ultrasonic waves.
• An ultrasonic soldering iron consists of an ultrasonic generator
having a tip fixed at its end which can be heated by an electrical
heating element.
• The tip of the soldering iron melts solder on the aluminium and the
ultrasonic vibrator removes the aluminium oxide layer.
• The solder thus gets fastened to clear metal without any difficulty.

4. Ultrasonic cleaning
It is the most cheap technique employed for cleaning various parts of
the machine, electronic assembles, armatures, watches etc, which
cannot be easily cleaned by other methods.
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 5. SONAR
• SONAR is a technique which stands for SOund Navigation and
Ranging. It uses ultrasonic waves for the detection and identification
of under water objects.
• The method consists of sending a powerful beam of ultrasonic waves
in the suspected direction in water.
• By noting the time interval between the emission and receipt of beam
after reflection, the distance of the object can be easily calculated.
Measuring the time interval (t)
between the transmitted pulses
and the received pulse, the
distance between the transmitter
and the remote object is
determined using the formula.,
d = vt/2
where v is the velocity of sound in
sea water. 28
 6. Ultrasonics in Medicine
Diagnostic sonography
Medical sonography (ultrasonography) is an ultrasound-based
diagnostic medical imaging technique used to visualize muscles and
many internal organs, their size, structure and any pathological lesions.

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 7. Car airbag sensor
Powerful US waves detect intensity of the
shock and send an electrical signal to trigger
the airbag.

8. Dispersion of fog
Fog is defined as a mass of water vapour condensed into small water
droplets on powery materials made from smoke, tyres etc.
When Ultra Sonic waves travel through fog, they being longitudinal in
nature, get reflected from its constituents and form stationary waves.
The stationary waves, comprising of high and low density points, help
coagulate the liquid and solid particles in the fog turning them into big
particles.
These particles fall on ground due to the gravity resulting in dispersal
of fog
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 9. Green Energy
Piezoelectricity being non-polluting is called green energy. It can be an
alternative green energy source in providing piezoelectric flooring at
places such as floors, airports, shopping malls, train stations or places
where heavy foot traffic is available.
It adopts a method which accumulates the mechanical energy from
people’s pressure on the piezoelectric board during the day in order to
light up the street at night.
One can convert the pressure from cars passing by the streets into electric
energy through the piezoelectric element under the street. This way all
streetlights on highway and traffic lights can run on semi-permanent
source of energy.
As piezoelectric technology uses vibrations to attain energy, even the
slightest vibration can be stored as electricity.

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