Abstract
Long term investigations were being performed at Nuclear Electric into the effect of crack face
roughness on the ultrasonic techniques for detecting and sizing of of such cracks on metalic
samples. To aid this investigation accurate information was needed on the surfaces of various
sample blocks. This project is about a small portion of the overall investigation, and concerns the
instrument used to measure the form of rough, crack-like surfaces.
A system devised in 1984 to measure surface roughness profiles used the now obsolete BBC
computer and so needed updating to use a modern P.C. computer. A number of other
improvements were required to increase the flexibility of the system.