Sizing with Time-of-Flight Diffraction

Time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) is an ultrasonic technique used to detect diffracted waves from crack tips and to size the cracks from the arrival times of those waves. This article discusses the basic considerations and provides information on probe selection, gain setting, and instrumentation of TOFD. It describes the numerous effects that result from modifying the probe characteristics. The article provides the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), and the International Standardization Organization (ISO) recommendations for the reference blocks according to applicable codes and standards. It also provides the ASME, CEN, and ISO recommendations for examination of welds. The article concludes with information on the interpretation and analysis of TOFD images with an aid of sizing algorithms.