LABORATORY OF LASER ULTRASOUND NON-DESTRUCTIVE CONTROL

Basic Information about the Laboratory:
The primary purpose of the laboratory is to justify a new research area of examining structural aspects and physicomechanical features of rock formations and heterogeneous structured materials based on the method of laser ultrasound spectroscopy and to create a laboratory base to implement this method.

Activities of the Laboratory:
As of now, there is no laser ultrasound structuroscopy of rock formations in the world. The Mining Institute of NUST MISiS is involved in creating prototypes of laser ultrasound structuroscopes for diagnosing geomaterials.

The synthesis of new heterogeneous materials for aviation and space equipment, as well as the creation of resource-saving technologies for minerals extraction require new approaches to diagnose the structure and properties of such materials for gaining a wider understanding of the existence of interstices, cracks and other defects therein as compared to the existing methods.

Improving the methods of studying structural aspects and physicomechanical features of complex natural and synthesized heterogeneous materials is one of the top priorities of geomechanics and mining geophysics that is of a vital fundamental and applied importance for increasing the efficiency of both the mining industry and other manufacturing sectors.

Thanks to the availability of stable functional and correlation links with the crucial physicomechanical features and structural aspects of complex natural and synthesized heterogeneous materials, ultrasound methods are of the utmost importance for studying the same. However, considerable potential opportunities of such methods are not implemented because of a limited nature of the spectrum and power of probing signals and insufficient sensibility of piezoelectric transformers.

A brand new approach to implementing ultrasound methods is about combining the laser excitation of powerful broad-band pulses of elastic waves and broad-band piezoregistration. As part of the grants of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research ((No. 08-05-00281-а Structural Diagnostics of Rock Formations based on the Principles of Laser Ultrasound Spectroscopy and No. 11-05000574-а Justification of the Laser Ultrasound Method of Studying Anisotropia and its Impact on the Structure and Properties of Rock Formations), authors of the project carried out the preliminary research that proved the possibility of discovering defects of the structure, evaluating the size of certain structural elements and determining bending characteristics of various environments with the use of such approach. However the lack of the hardware permitting to reveal the entire potential of opportunities of the method of laser ultrasound non-destructive testing and structuroscopy hinders its actual application.

The unique automated laser ultrasound inspection equipment developed over the most recent years by Russian scientists, including the project participants, enable feeding short powerful ultrasound impulses with the range of up to 10 MPa, for the duration of less than 100 ns and with the frequency spectrum ranging from 50 kHz up to 200 MHz. The dynamic range of those systems is 60-70 dB. There is no similar inspection equipment globally. Its use in this project will foster the practical implementation of the relevant goals.

The creation of the laboratory of laser ultrasound diagnostics of the structure and features of rock formations and heterogeneous structured materials allows implementing the new methods of controlling such items supplementing the NUST MISiS methods of scanning and transmission electronic microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, mechanical tests, etc. The main advantage of the method is about the increased sensitivity, information content, option of working with small-sized samples and increasing the efficiency of measurement processes. The studies carried out by the laboratory will serve as a foundation for creating the laser ultrasound tomography of geomaterials and heterogeneous engineering materials.

The contact details are listed below:

Office, Laboratory of Laser Ultrasound Non-Destructive Control of NUST MISiS: +7 499 700-03-06
(extension 50221, 50222)