Ultrasonic thickness measurement

In the field of industrial ultrasonic testing, ultrasonic thickness measurement (UTM) is a method of performing non-destructive measurement (gauging) of the local thickness of a solid element (typically made of metal, if using ultrasound testing for industrial purposes) basing on the time taken by the ultrasound wave to return to the surface. This type of measurement is typically performed with an ultrasonic thickness gauge.

Ultrasonic waves have been observed to travel through metals at a constant speed characteristic to a given alloy with minor variations due to other factors like temperature. Thus, given this information, called celerity, one can calculate the length of the path traversed by the wave using this simple formula:

${\displaystyle l_{m}=ct/2}$
where
${\displaystyle l_{m}}$ is the thickness of the sample
${\displaystyle c}$ is the celerity of sound in the given sample
${\displaystyle t}$ is the traverse time

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