Acoustical Imaging Of Defects In Ceramics

Because of their brittle nature, ceramics are extremely sensitive to even slight variations in microstructure. Direct observations show importance of kinds of defects by identifying them as sites of localized failures. Sites cannot be determined priori by optical and x-ray methods. Color images obtained from precise acoustic measurements reveal subtle variations in porosity fractions and mean sizes of pores in ceramics. Velocity and attenuation of ultrasound found related directly to density and mean size of pores, respectively.