Ti-based alloys are accessible for use in the human body due to their good mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibilities. These main properties of alloys are important criteria for choosing biomedical implants for human bones or for other kinds of applications in general medicine. This paper presents a comparison of four new Ti-based alloys desired to satisfy various requirements for biomedical implants. The materials were prepared with recipes for two new system alloys, TiMoZrTa (TMZT) and TiMoSi (TMS), alloys with nontoxic elements. The presented research contains microstructure images, indentation tests, Vickers hardness, XRD, and corrosion resistance, showing better characteristics than most commercial products used as implants (Young’s modulus closer to the human bone).

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has become one of the key technologies in subsurface sensing and, in general, in nondestructive testing (NDT), since it is able to detect both metallic and nonmetallic targets. GPR has proven its ability to work in electromagnetic frequency range for subsoil investigations, and it is a risk-reduction strategy for surveying underground various targets and their identification and detection. This paper presents the results of a case study which exceeds the laboratory level being realized in the field in a real case where the scanning conditions are much more difficult using GPR signals for detecting and assessing underground drainage metallic pipes which cross an area with large buildings parallel to the riverbed. The two urban drainage pipes are detected based on GPR imaging. This provides an approximation of their location and depth which are convenient to find from the reconstructed profiles of both simulated and practical GPR signals. The processing of data recorded with GPR tools requires appropriate software for this type of measurement to detect between different reflections at multiple interfaces located at different depths below the surface. In addition to the radargrams recorded and processed with the software corresponding to a GPR device, the paper contains significant results obtained using techniques and algorithms of the processing and post-processing of the signals (background removal and migration) that gave us the opportunity to estimate the location, depth, and profile of pipes, placed into a concrete duct bank, under a structure with different layers, including pavement, with good accuracy.

This paper deals with the acoustic and elastic properties of resonant wood, classified into four classes, according to the classification of wood quality by the manufacturers of musical instruments. Traditionally, the quality grades of resonant wood are determined on the basis of the visual inspections of the macroscopic characteristics of the wood (annual ring width, regularity, proportion of early and late wood, absence of defects, etc.). Therefore, in this research, we studied whether there are correlations between the acoustic and elastic properties and the anatomical characteristics of wood used for the construction of violins. The results regarding the identification of the anatomical properties of resonant spruce, the wood color, and the acoustic/elastic properties, determined by ultrasonic measurements, were statistically analyzed to highlight the connection between the determined properties. From the statistical analysis, it can be seen that the only variables with the power to separate the quality classes are (in descending order of importance) the speed of sound propagation in the radial direction, Poisson’s ratio in the longitudinal–radial direction, and the speed of propagation of sounds in the longitudinal direction.

This paper proposes the study and implementation of a sensor with a metamaterial (MM) lens in electromagnetic nondestructive evaluation (eNDE). Thus, the use of a new type of MM, named Conical Swiss Rolls (CSR) has been proposed. These structures can serve as electromagnetic flux concentrators in the radiofrequency range. As a direct application, plates of composite materials with carbon fibers woven as reinforcement and polyphenylene sulphide as matrix with delaminations due to low energy impacts were examined. The evaluation method is based on the appearance of evanescent modes in the space between carbon fibers when the sample is excited with a transversal magnetic along z axis (TMz) polarized electromagnetic field. The MM lens allows the transmission and intensification of evanescent waves. The characteristics of carbon fibers woven structure became visible and delaminations are clearly emphasized. The flaws can be localized with spatial resolution better than λ/2000.

This work presents two methods for nondestructive evaluation of the severity of material discontinuities in nonmagnetic conductive plates by eddy currents generated by a transducer with orthogonal coils. The first method deals with long rectilinear discontinuities located beneath the surface under test and having a negligible width. It is based on the geometrical theory of diffraction of electromagnetic waves generated by the transducer. The conditions under which a real transducer satisfies the diffraction model hypotheses are specified. In this case, the experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical ones. The second method concerns small volumetric discontinuities whose shape and size are evaluated by an eddy-current holographic procedure. When the discontinuity size is comparable with that of the transducer, this permits reconstruction of the shape and determination of the depth of the discontinuity beneath the surface under test.