Blog : What's new ?

CIVA 2021 features:

• A new NDE method joins the CIVA platform with a Thermographic Testing module. It includes Optical lamp thermographic inspection simulation and an Induction Heating computation module.
• A dedicated tool for Steam Generator Tube Eddy Current inspection modelling, with the capacity to simulate many complex configurations (U-Bend, support plates, complex defects, section distortions, etc.). CIVA ET now also provides the possibility to perform field computations in complex geometries.
• CIVA UT comes with a new "Sensitivity Coverage" environment to give ultrasonic coverage and sensitivity maps, advanced features for PA UT TFM to help select the most efficient modes, new probes in CIVA UT (Daisy, Shear Waves 0°, etc.), and also more possibilities offered for complex configurations with the FEM engine available within CIVA UT.
• CIVA RT now includes a bridge to the advanced analysis software ImageJ.
• CIVA GWT lets you simulate inspection configuration with more defects and discontinuities.
• Parametric studies and metamodels have been reorganized for more efficient design of experiments.
• And let’s not forget the recent CIVA SHM and CIVA Script modules that are, of course, still there in CIVA 2021!

You will find more information about the new features of CIVA 2021 in our release note and a complete description of CIVA in our datasheet.

Our users with a valid maintenance contract will receive this update within the next few days.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about CIVA.

The EXTENDE team.

Phased-Arrays sensors and systems provide a great flexibility to UT inspectors, as the ultrasonic beam can be adjusted thanks to electronic set-up to increase performances (for detection or sizing) in different situations while using the same probe. For instance, the delay laws enable to steer the beam at different angles (sector scan technique) and/or focus the beam at different depths.

However, ultrasounds remain ultrasounds!

One key rule of acoustics is that you cannot focus beyond the near field distance (governed by the wavelength, frequency and crystal aperture)… And this remains absolutely true with phased-array sensors!

Rather than long explanations and mathematical formulas, let’s use CIVA simulations to illustrate this!

Above, you can see the sound field sector scan coverage generated in a carbon steel block by a linear PA UT probe of 2MHz and 26 mm aperture. The first beam chart on the top left illustrates a sector scan (30° to 60°) without any depth focusing, the max is around 50mm depth corresponding to the natural focal spot, which corresponds to the limit of the near field. Several focal laws are then successively applied to change the focal depth from 30 mm to 120 mm while keeping the same angular scanning. These focal laws lead to a geometrical focusing of the beam illustrated by the white cross, but as you can observe on the 3rd case, and above all the last case, the actual focus cannot be deeper compared to the geometrical “specification”.

It just takes a few minutes to illustrate this with CIVA, and can avoid many misunderstandings and misuse of PA UT probes and systems!

Feel free to contact us if you need more information about ultrasonic testing with CIVA.

The EXTENDE team.