Processing of Large Amount of Experimental Data Collected During Laboratory Procedures

Processing of large experimental data files collected during laboratory procedures in the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) course is described in this paper. The main objective of this course is to introduce students to fundamentals of ultrasound measurements and to demonstrate the basic principles of ultrasound Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) of materials by combining hands-on laboratory experience with lectures. In this course, students learn the physical principles and fundamentals of ultrasound material characterization. Students also learn industrial applications of NDE techniques and procedures and become familiar with detection and characterization of defects in materials, such as flaws and cracks. During the experiments, students collect extensive amount of data using UTWin software. Later, these data files are processed using Excel to evaluate ultrasound parameters of various materials, such as sound velocity, attenuation coefficients, and properties of piezoelectric transducers. The results of the experiments and conclusions are presented by the students in comprehensive laboratory reports. The process of comparing all individual files to calculate required parameters is very time consuming. This task can be simplified and automated using macros. The special Excel macros were developed to assist students with processing of the large data files. Evaluation of the collected data, the description of the final results, and data analysis are presented using figures, graphs, tables, or other convenient forms.