Nondestructive detection

D.L. McMakin, D. M. Sheen, and T. E. Hall, Millimeter-wave imaging for concealed weapon detection, Nondestructive Detection and Measurement for Homeland Security, San Diego, CA, 2003, Proceedings of the SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering vol. 5048 52-62, 2003. 

The most notable feature of the process described above is that ions are not destroyed by the detection process. Therefore ions can be further manipulated after detection. The simplest example is the remeasurement of ions (i.e., repeating the excite and/or detect sequence to obtain another mass spectrum of the same group of ions). More complex manipulations include multiple stages of MS/MS. The facts that ions are detected nondestructively and that they are trapped in a region of space mean that very complex sequences of ion manipulations are possible, making FT-ICR instruments the most versatile of all mass spectrometers. 

Normally, many different ions will be present within the cell but they may all be excited by a rapid frequency sweep. The m/z values of the ions present in the ICR cell, and their abundance, may then be extracted mathematically from the resultant complex image current using a Fourier transformation to generate the mass spectrum of the ions. An important feature of FTICR is that the ions are detected nondestructively and that longer acquisition times over a narrower m/z range may be used to increase the measured mass resolution and the S/N. 

Acoustic emission (AE) has been widely used in many fields such as material behavior detecting, nondestructive testing, investigating friction and wear processes, monitoring engineering structures, and mechanical machining processes since the late 1960s. 

The purpose of the nondestructive control consists in detecting local modifications of the material parameters which, by their presence can endanger the quality of the half-finished or finished products. The electromagnetic nondestructive control permits to render evident surface and subsurface discontinuities in the electroconductive material under test. The present tendency of this control is to pass from a qualitative evaluation (the presence or absence of the material discontinuities which give at the output of the control equipment a signal higher or at least equal to that coming from a standard discontinuity whose shape and severity has been prescribed by the product standards) to a quantitative one, which enables to locate as exactly as possible the discontinuity and to make predictions over its shape and severity. 

This work presents two methods to determine the shape and severity of material discontinuities detected by means of the eddy current nondestructive control. 

Magnetic particles is one of the most used nondestructive testing techniques in industry. It allows detection and localization of surfacic and subsurfacic defects of ferromagnetic pieces by making conspicuous leakage fields by a magnetic developer. 

Speckle shearing interferometry, or shearography, is a full field optical inspection teclmique that may be used for the nondestructive detection of surface and, sometimes, subsurface defects. Whilst being more sensitive in the detection of surface defects, it may also be considered for pipe inspection and the monitoring of internal conoslon. In contrast, laser ultrasound and other forms of ultrasound, are point by point measurement techniques, so that scanning facilities and significant data processing is required before information on local defects is extracted from any examination of extensive areas [1 - 3]. 

Plenary 18. Robin J FI Clark, e-mail address r.i.h.clark ucl.ac.uk (RS). Reports on recent diagnostic probing of art works ranging from illuminated manuscripts, paintings and pottery to papyri and icons. Nondestructive NIR microscopic RS is now realistic using CCD detection. Optimistic about new developments. 

The objective ia any analytical procedure is to determine the composition of the sample (speciation) and the amounts of different species present (quantification). Spectroscopic techniques can both identify and quantify ia a single measurement. A wide range of compounds can be detected with high specificity, even ia multicomponent mixtures. Many spectroscopic methods are noninvasive, involving no sample collection, pretreatment, or contamination (see Nondestructive evaluation). Because only optical access to the sample is needed, instmments can be remotely situated for environmental and process monitoring (see Analytical METHODS Process control). Spectroscopy provides rapid real-time results, and is easily adaptable to continuous long-term monitoring. Spectra also carry information on sample conditions such as temperature and pressure. 

Corrosion-fatigue cracks can be detected by nondestructive testing techniques such as magnetic particle inspection, radiography, ultrasonics, and dye penetrant. Corrosion-fatigue cracks may occur in numerous tubes simultaneously. Nondestructive testing of tubes at locations similar to those in which cracks are observed can be useftil. 

Most defects can be detected using one or more appropriate nondestructive testing techniques. However, in the absence of routine nondestructive testing inspections, identification of defects in installed equipment is generally limited to those that can be observed visually. Defects such as high residual stresses, microstructural defects such as sensitized welds in stainless steel, and laminations will normally remain undetected. Defects that can be detected visually have the following features ... 

Identification. If accessible, defects from burnthrough may be visually identified as fused holes in the tube wall. Various nondestructive testing techniques, such as radiography and ultrasonics, may also detect this defect. The defect generally causes leakage soon after affected equipment is placed in service. 

Occasionally, corrosion of this type produces large cavities covered by a thin outer skin of weld metal (Fig. 15.5). Even close examinations of such sites under a low-power microscope may fail to reveal the cavities. Compare Figs. 15.6 and 15.7. Generally, such sites are detected either by fluid leakage or by nondestructive testing techniques such as radiography and ultrasonics. 

In summary, CL can provide contactless and nondestructive analysis of a wide range of electronic properties of a variety of luminescent materials. Spatial resolution of less than 1 pm in the CL-SEM mode and detection limits of impurity concentrations down to 10 at/cm can be attained. CL depth profiling can be performed by varying the range of electron penetration that depends on the electron-beam energy the excitation depth can be varied from about 10 nm to several pm for electron-beam energies ranging between about 1 keV and 40 keV. 

Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) provides quantitative, nondestructive elemental depth profiles with depth resolutions sufficient to satisfy many requirements however, it is generally restricted to the analysis of elements heavier than those in the substrate. The major reason for considering depth profiling using FIXE is to remove this restrictive condition and provide quantitative, nondestructive depth profiles for all elements yielding detectable characteristic X rays (i.e.,Z> 5 for Si(Li) detectors). 

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