What Does
Azimuthal Scanning Mean?
Azimuthal scanning is a process that scans a material’s surface for any irregularities caused by corrosion, rusting, pitting, dents or cracks with the aid of an ultrasonic incident beam that strikes the material at an incidence angle and an azimuth angle. The incident beam scans a wide area of the material’s surface over a range of azimuth angles to obtain an azimuthal scan.
Corrosionpedia Explains Azimuthal Scanning
Like linear scanning for corrosion and loss of metal, azimuthal scanning is a process to search for any irregularities in the metal surface such as corrosion or cracks. In linear scanning, the scanning is done linearly, however, in azimuthal scanning, the scanning is performed at an angle called an azimuth angle. Electromagnetic acoustic transducers generate longitudinal and shear sound waves at an angle that strike the metal structure at an incidence angle and an azimuth angle.
Advantages of azimuthal scanning over linear scanning:
- Easily locates the irregularity from the center of the metal surface being scanned as it scans the surfaces at various angles (45, 60, 120 degrees).
- Covers a wider area on each scan.
- Faster and produces more accurate results.