ULTRASONIC WAVES

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Topic cover through ultrasonic are….

Introduction to Ultrasonics
Properties of Ultrasonic waves
Ultrasonic Production- Magnetostriction
Method
Ultrasonic Production- Piezo Electric Method
Applications of Ultrasonics
Worked Problem

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 Introduction to Ultrasonics
The word ultrasonic combines the Latin roots
ultra, meaning ‘beyond’ and sonic, or sound.
The sound waves having frequencies above the
audible range i.e. above 20000Hz are called
ultrasonic waves.
Generally these waves are called as high
frequency waves.
The field of ultrasonics have applications for
imaging, detection and navigation.
The broad sectors of society that regularly apply
ultrasonic technology are the medical
community, industry, the military and private
citizens.

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 Properties of ultrasonic waves
(1) They have a high energy content.

(2) Just like ordinary sound waves, ultrasonic waves

get reflected, refracted and absorbed.

(3) They can be transmitted over large distances

with no appreciable loss of energy.

(4) If an arrangement is made to form stationary waves

of ultrasonic in a liquid, it serves as a
diffraction grating. It is called an acoustic grating.

(5) They produce intense heating effect when passed

through a substance.
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 Ultrasonics Production

Ultrasonic waves are produced by the

following methods.

(1) Magnetostriction generator or oscillator

(2) Piezo-electric generator or oscillator

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 Magnetostriction Generator

Principle: Magnetostriction effect

When a ferromagnetic rod like iron or nickel is

placed in a magnetic field parallel to its length,
the rod experiences a small change in its length.
This is called magnetostriction effect.

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The change in length (increase or decrease) produced
in the rod depends upon the strength of the magnetic
field, the nature of the materials and is independent of
the direction of the magnetic field applied.
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Construction

The experimental arrangement is shown in Figure

Magnetostriction oscillator
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XY is a rod of ferromagnetic materials like iron or
nickel. The rod is clamped in the middle.

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.
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 Working
When High Tension (H.T) battery is switched on,
the collector circuit oscillates with a frequency,

f= 1
2  L1 C

This alternating current flowing through the coil

L1 produces an alternating magnetic field along
the length of the rod. The result is that the rod
starts vibrating due to magnetostrictive effect.

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The frequency of vibration of the rod is given by
1 Y
n =
2l 

where l = length of the rod

Y = Young’s modulus of the rod material
and
 =density of rod material

• The capacitor C is adjusted so that the frequency of

the oscillatory circuit is equal to natural frequency
of the rod and thus resonance takes plate.
• Now the rod vibrates longitudinally with maximum
amplitude and generates ultrasonic waves of high
frequency from its ends. 11
 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 (ie.
3MHz).
2. The frequency of oscillations depends on
temperature.
3. There will be losses of energy due to hysteresis
and eddy current. 12
Piezo Electric Generator or Oscillator
Principle : Inverse piezo electric 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.

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 Construction
The circuit diagram is shown in Figure

Piezo electric oscillator

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The quartz crystal is placed between two metal
plates A and B.
The plates are connected to the primary (L ) of a
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transformer which is inductively coupled to the
electronics oscillator.
The electronic oscillator circuit is a base tuned
oscillator circuit.
The coils L and L of oscillator circuit are taken
1 2
from the secondary of a transformer T.
The collector coil L is inductively coupled to
2
base coil L1.
The coil L and variable capacitor C form the
1 1
tank circuit of the oscillator.

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 Working
 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 plates
A and B.
 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

P Y
n = 2l  where P = 1,2,3,4 … etc. for
fundamental, first over tone, second over
tone etc.,
Y = Young’s modulus of the crystal and
ρ = density of the crystal.
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The variable condenser C1 is adjusted such that
the frequency of the applied AC voltage is equal
to the natural frequency of the quartz crystal,
and thus resonance takes place.

The vibrating crystal produces longitudinal

ultrasonic waves of large amplitude.

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 Advantages
Ultrasonic frequencies as high as 5 x 108Hz or
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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 Detection of Ultrasonic Waves
1. Piezoelectric Detector
 Piezoelectric effect can also be used to detect ultrasonics. If
ultrasonics 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
ultrasonics.
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 sprinkled in the
tube collects in the form of heaps at the nodal points and is
blown off at the antinodal points. This method is used
provided that the wavelength is not very small.
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3 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 nodes, due
to alternate compressions ad rarefactions, adiabatic
changes in temperature takes place. The resistance
of the platinum wire changes with respect to time.
This can be detected with the help of Callendar and
Garrifith’s bridge arrangement.
At the position of the antinodes, the temperature
remains constant. This will be indicated by the
undisturbed balanced position of the bridge. 
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4. flame  Method

A narrow sensitive flame is moved along

the medium. At the positions of antinodes, the flame
is steady.
 At thepositions of nodes, 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.
If the value of the frequency of ultrasonic wave is
known, the velocity of ultrasonic wave propagated
through the medium can be calculated. 
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 Acoustic Diffraction  Method
(Determination of the velocity)
This method is based on the fact that ultrasonic
waves which consist of alternate compressions
and rarefactions changes the density of the
medium through which they  pass.
This leads to a periodic variation of refractive
index of the liquid, such a liquid column is
subjected to ultrasonic waves constitutes an
acoustical grating. If monochromatic light is
passed through the waves the liquid causes the
diffraction of light.

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Figure shows the experimental arrangement,
standing ultrasonic waves are produced in  a liquid 
contained in a glass tube. The density and so the
refractive index of the  liquid is maximum at the 
nodal point and minimum at antinodal points. Hence
the  nodal area acts  as opaque region, while
antinodal area acts  as  transparent region for  light.
The  liquid column thus resembles the  rules grating.

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The  grating period d equal to /λ/2 and is given by
d sine θ=mλ
Where
λ= wavelength of monochromatic light beam
m = order of minima.
An  acoustic diffraction grating produced by  a liquid
column subjected to  ultrasonic waves 24
Applications of Ultrasonic Waves in Engineering
(1)Detection of flaws in metals(NDT)

Principle
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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Experimental setup
It consists of an ultrasonic frequency generator and
a cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO),transmitting
transducer(A), receiving transducer(B) and an
amplifier.

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 Working
In flaws, there is a change of medium and this
produces reflection of ultrasonic at the cavities or
cracks.
The reflected beam (echoes) is recorded by using
cathode ray oscilloscope.
 The time interval between initial and flaw echoes
depends on the range of flaw.
By examining echoes on CRO, flaws can be
detected and their sizes can be estimated.

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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 welding
The properties of some metals change on
heating and therefore, such metals cannot be
welded by electric or gas welding.

In such cases,the metallic sheets are welded

together at room temperature by using
ultrasonic waves.

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(4) 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.
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 (5) Ultrasonic cutting and machining
Ultrasonic waves are used for cutting and
machining.

(6) 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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(7) SONAR
 SONAR is a technique which stands for
Sound Navigation and Ranging.
 It uses ultrasonics for the detection and
identification of under water objects.
 The method consists of sending a powerful
beam of ultrasonics 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.
 The change in frequency of the echo signal
due to the Dopper effect helps to
determine the velocity of the body and its
direction.
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 Measuring the time interval (t) between the
transmitted pulses and the received pulse,
vt
d 
2
 the distance between the transmitter and the
remote object is determined using the
formula., where v is the velocity of sound in
sea water.
 The same principle is used to find the depth of
the sea.
Applications of SONAR
1. Sonar is used in the location of shipwrecks and
submarines on the bottom of the sea.
2. It is used for fish-finding application .
3. It is used for seismic survey.

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Applications of Ultrasonics in Medicine
(1)Diagnostic sonography

 Medical sonography (ultrasonography) is an

ultrasound-based diagnostic medical
imaging technique used to visualize
muscles, tendons, and many internal organs,
their size, structure and any pathological
Obstetric
lesions. ultrasound is primarily used to:
• Date the pregnancy
• Check the location of the placenta
• Check for the number of fetuses
• Check for physical abnormities
• Check the sex of the baby
• Check for fetal movement, breathing, and
heartbeat. 34
(2)Ultrasound therapeutic applications

• More power ultrasound sources may be used

to clean teeth in dental hygiene or generate
local heating in biological tissue, e.g. in
occupational therapy, physical therapy and
cancer treatment.

• Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy uses a

powerful focused ultrasound source to break
up kidney stones.
• We can also use it in Ultrasonic blood
Flow meter

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Ultrasound in research
Scientists often use in research, for instant to break
up high molecular weight polymers, thus creating
new plastic materials.
Indeed, ultrasound also makes it possible to
determine the molecular weight of liquid
polymers, and to conduct other forms of
investigation on the physical properties of
materials.
Ultrasonic can also speed up certain chemical
reactions. Hence it has gained application in
agriculture, that seeds subjected to ultrasound may
germinate more rapidly and produce higher yields.
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