On Circumferential Disposition of Pipe Defects by Long-Range Ultrasonic Guided Waves

2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 530-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Li
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Arrival Time ◽  
Single Channel ◽  
Blind Deconvolution ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Inspection Systems ◽  
Corrosion Defects

Ultrasonic guided waves have been used extensively for long-range pipe inspections. The technique is based on detecting the guided wave echoes reflected from pipe defects located at a remote distance. The axial location of the defect from the transducer can be determined by the arrival time of the echo. However, further information about the defect, such as the circumferential size or distribution of the defect, is hard to obtain with conventional guided waves. This problem will be a critical issue for applications, such as discriminating the pipe corrosion defects from pipe welds. In this paper, a circumferential guided wave array is built for sending and receiving guided waves along the pipe. All of the elements are connected to a single channel pulser/receiver through multiplexers. An algorithm based on two-dimensional (2D) blind deconvolution is developed to process the guided wave echoes acquired by the multiplexed circumferential transducer array. The output of the algorithm can be utilized for evaluating the circumferential distributions and geometry of the defects. The processing algorithm is verified via both numerical simulations and experiments in the paper. This circumferential sizing algorithm can serve as an effective postanalysis tool for most available guided wave pipe inspection systems.

Mode Tuning of Guided Wave in a Seamless Stainless Steel Tube Using an Array Transducer

2005 ◽  
Vol 297-300 ◽  
pp. 2077-2082
Author(s):  
Young H. Kim ◽  
Sung Jin Song ◽  
Joon Soo Park ◽  
Jae Hee Kim ◽  
Heung Seop Eom
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Wave Mode ◽  
Steel Tube ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Stainless Steel Tube ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Mode Identification ◽  
Array Transducer

Ultrasonic guided waves have been widely employed for the long range inspection of structures such as plates and pipes. In ultrasonic guided waves, however, there are numerous modes with different wave velocities, so that the generation and detection of the appropriate wave mode of the guided wave is one of key techniques in the application of guided waves. In the present work, mode tuning using an array transducer was investigated with hardware implements. For this purpose, 8-channel ultrasonic pulser and their controller which enables sequential activation of each channels with given time delay were developed. Transmitter tuning, group velocity measurements, reciver tuning, mode identification and long range transmission testing were carried out. As a result, the selective tuning of wave mode can be achieved by changing the time interval between adjacent elements of an array transducer.

Ultrasonic Guided Wave Monitoring of Railroad Tracks

2012 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 198-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Nucera ◽  
Robert Phillips ◽  
Francesco Lanza di Scalea
Keyword(s):  
Guided Waves ◽  
Thermal Stresses ◽  
Flaw Detection ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Rail Transportation ◽  
Railroad Tracks ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Wave ◽  
The Us ◽  
Inspection Systems

Among structural concerns for the safety of rail transportation are internal flaws and thermal stresses, both of which can cause disruption of service and even derailments. Ultrasonic guided waves lend themselves to addressing both of these problems. This paper reports on two inspection systems for rails being developed at UCSD under the auspices of the US Federal Railroad Administration. Both systems utilize ultrasonic guided waves as the main probing mechanism, for the two different applications of flaw detection and thermal stress detection.

Application of Torsional Mode of Guided Waves to Long Range Pipe Inspection

2006 ◽  
Vol 326-328 ◽  
pp. 473-476
Author(s):  
Ik Keun Park ◽  
Yong Kwon Kim ◽  
Won Joon Song ◽  
Yong Sang Cho
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Wall Thickness ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Thickness Reduction ◽  
Torsional Mode ◽  
Pipeline Inspection ◽  
Cross Section Area ◽  
Section Area

Conventional non-destructive techniques for inspection of weld in pipelines require significant test time and high cost. In order to overcome these drawbacks in conventional NDT techniques, various techniques using ultrasonic guided waves have been developed and applied to the pipeline inspection. Recently, a fast calculation technique for guided wave propagation using a semi-analytical finite element method (SAFEM), PIPE WAVE ver.1.0, has been developed by T. Takahiro et al [1]. In this paper, the calculation of torsional mode propagation in a pipe using PIPE WAVE ver. 1.0 is introduced as a preliminary study and the application of the torsional mode of ultrasonic guided waves to long range pipe inspection is presented.. The characteristics and setup of a long range guided wave inspection system and experimental results in pipes of various diameters are introduced. The experimental results in mock-up pipes with cluster type detects show that the limit of detectable wall thickness reduction with this guided wave system is 2~3% in the pipe cross section area and the wall thickness reduction of 5% in cross section area can be detected when actual detection level is used. Therefore, the applicability of the ultrasonic guided wave technique to long range pipeline inspection for wall thickness reduction is verified.

scholarly journals Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Guided Wave Propagation in a Multi-Wire Cable

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengfei Zhang ◽  
Zhifeng Tang ◽  
Fuzai Lv ◽  
Keji Yang
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Wave Structure ◽  
Excitation Power ◽  
Dispersion Analysis ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Mechanical Coupling ◽  
Guided Wave Propagation ◽  
Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity

Ultrasonic guided waves (UGWs) have attracted attention in the nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring (SHM) of multi-wire cables. They offer such advantages as a single measurement, wide coverage of the acoustic field, and long-range propagation ability. However, the mechanical coupling of multi-wire structures complicates the propagation behaviors of guided waves and signal interpretation. In this paper, UGW propagation in these waveguides is investigated theoretically, numerically, and experimentally from the perspective of dispersion and wave structure, contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN), and wave energy transfer. Although the performance of all possible propagating wave modes in a multi-wire cable at different frequencies could be obtained by dispersion analysis, it is ineffective to analyze the frequency behaviors of the wave signals of a certain mode, which could be analyzed using the CAN effect. The CAN phenomenon of two mechanically coupled wires in contact was observed, which was demonstrated by numerical guided wave simulation and experiments. Additionally, the measured guided wave energy of wires located in different layers of an aluminum conductor steel-reinforced cable accords with the theoretical prediction. The model of wave energy distribution in different layers of a cable also could be used to optimize the excitation power of transducers and determine the effective monitoring range of SHM.

scholarly journals Warped Wigner-Hough Transform for Defect Reflection Enhancement in Ultrasonic Guided Wave Monitoring

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca De Marchi ◽  
Emanuele Baravelli ◽  
Giampaolo Cera ◽  
Nicolò Speciale ◽  
Alessandro Marzani
Keyword(s):  
Hough Transform ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Lamb Waves ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Nonlinear Signal Processing ◽  
Localization Accuracy ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Wave ◽  
Inspection Systems ◽  
Nonlinear Signal

To improve the defect detectability of Lamb wave inspection systems, the application of nonlinear signal processing was investigated. The approach is based on a Warped Frequency Transform (WFT) to compensate the dispersive behavior of ultrasonic guided waves, followed by a Wigner-Ville time-frequency analysis and the Hough Transform to further improve localization accuracy. As a result, an automatic detection procedure to locate defect-induced reflections was demonstrated and successfully tested by analyzing numerically simulated Lamb waves propagating in an aluminum plate. The proposed method is suitable for defect detection and can be easily implemented for real-world structural health monitoring applications.

Ultrasonic Guided Wave Testing of Finned Tubing

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen M. Malinowski ◽  
Matthew S. Lindsey ◽  
Jason K. Van Velsor
Keyword(s):  
Wave Propagation ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Tube Wall ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Inspection Method ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Wave ◽  
Guided Wave Propagation ◽  
Wave Modes

In the past few decades, ultrasonic guided waves have been utilized more frequently Non-Destructive Testing (NDT); most notably, in the qualitative screening of buried piping. However, only a fraction of their potential applications in NDT have been fully realized. This is due, in part, to their complex nature, as well as the high level of expertise required to understand and utilize their propagation characteristics. The mode/frequency combinations that can be generated in a particular structure depend on geometry and material properties and are represented by the so-called dispersion curves. Although extensive research has been done in ultrasonic guided wave propagation in various geometries and materials, the treatment of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in periodic structures has received little attention. In this paper, academic aspects of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in structures with periodicity in the wave vector direction are investigated, with the practical purpose of developing an ultrasonic guided wave based inspection technique for finned tubing. Theoretical, numerical, and experimental methods are employed. The results of this investigation show excellent agreement between theory, numerical modeling, and experimentation; all of which indicate that ultrasonic guided waves will propagate coherently in finned tube only if the proper wave modes and frequencies are selected. It is shown that the frequencies at which propagating wave modes exist can be predicted theoretically and numerically, and depend strongly on the fin geometry. Furthermore, the results show that these propagating wave modes are capable of screening for and identifying the axial location of damage in the tube wall, as well as separation of the fins from the tube wall. The conclusion drawn from these results is that Guided Wave Testing (GWT) is a viable inspection method for screening finned tubing.

A Wall Thinning Detection and Quantification Based on Guided Wave Mode Conversion Features

2006 ◽  
Vol 321-323 ◽  
pp. 795-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youn Ho Cho ◽  
Won Deok Oh ◽  
Joon Hyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Mode Conversion ◽  
Group Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Wave Mode ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Wall Thinning ◽  
Theoretical Analyses ◽  
Data Calibration

This study presents a feasibility of using guided waves for a long-range inspection of pipe through investigation of mode conversion and scattering pattern from edge and wall-thinning in a steel pipe. Phase and group velocity dispersion curves for reference modes of pipes are illustrated for theoretical analyses. Predicted modes could be successfully generated by controlling frequency, receiver angle and wavelength. The dispersive characteristics of the modes from and edge wall-thinning are compared and analyzed respectively. The mode conversion characteristics are distinct depending on dispersive pattern of modes. Experimental feasibility study on the guided waves was carried out to explore wall thinning part in pipe for data calibration of a long range pipe monitoring by comb transducer and laser.

scholarly journals Numerical Investigation of Excitation of Various Lamb Waves Modes in Thin Plastic Films

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 849
Author(s):  
Rymantas Jonas Kazys ◽  
Justina Sestoke ◽  
Egidijus Zukauskas
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Investigation ◽  
Lamb Wave ◽  
Guided Waves ◽  
Phased Array ◽  
Ultrasonic Transducer ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Plastic Films ◽  
Thin Plastic ◽  
Wave Modes

Ultrasonic-guided waves are widely used for the non-destructive testing and material characterization of plates and thin films. In the case of thin plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC), films up to 3.2 MHz with only two Lamb wave modes, antisymmetrical A0 and symmetrical S0, may propagate. At frequencies lower that 240 kHz, the velocity of the A0 mode becomes slower than the ultrasonic velocity in air which makes excitation and reception of such mode complicated. For excitation of both modes, we propose instead a single air-coupled ultrasonic transducer to use linear air-coupled arrays, which can be electronically readjusted to optimally excite and receive the A0 and S0 guided wave modes. The objective of this article was the numerical investigation of feasibility to excite different types of ultrasonic-guided waves, such as S0 and A0 modes in thin plastic films with the same electronically readjusted linear phased array. Three-dimensional and two-dimensional simulations of A0 and S0 Lamb wave modes using a single ultrasonic transducer and a linear phased array were performed. The obtained results clearly demonstrate feasibility to excite efficiently different guided wave modes in thin plastic films with readjusted phased array.

scholarly journals Excitation and Propagation of Longitudinal L (0, 2) Mode Ultrasonic Guided Waves for the Detection of Damages in Hexagonal Pipes: Numerical and Experimental Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Xiang Wan ◽  
Meiru Liu ◽  
Xuhui Zhang ◽  
Hongwei Fan ◽  
Qinghua Mao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Guided Waves ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Dispersion Curves ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Wave ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Through Hole

The hexagonal pipe is a special kind of tube structure. Its inner surface of the cross section is in the shape of circle, while the outer surface is hexagonal. It has functioned as an essential and critical part of a drill stem in a high-torque drill machine used in various resource exploitation fields. The inspection of a hexagonal pipe to avoid its failure and thus to ensure safe operation of a drilling machine is becoming increasingly urgent and important. In this study, the excitation and propagation of ultrasonic guided waves for the purpose of detecting defects in hexagonal pipes are proposed. Dispersion curves of hexagonal pipes are firstly derived by using semianalytical finite element method. Based on these dispersion curves, longitudinal L (0, 2) mode at 100 kHz is selected to inspect hexagonal pipes. A ring of piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) with the size of 25 mm × 5 mm ×0.5 mm is able to maximize the amplitude of L (0, 2) mode and successfully suppress the undesired L (0, 1) mode in the experiments. Numerical and experimental studies have shown that the displacement field of L (0, 2) mode at 100 kHz is almost uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction. Furthermore, L (0, 2) mode ultrasonic guided waves at 100 kHz are capable of detecting circular through-hole damages located in the plane and near the edge in a hexagonal pipe. Our study results have demonstrated that the use of longitudinal L (0, 2) mode ultrasonic guided wave provides a promising and effective alternative for the detection of defects in hexagonal pipe structures.

scholarly journals Nondestructive Inspection of Corrosion and Delamination at the Concrete-Steel Reinforcement Interface

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tri Miller ◽  
Christopher J. Hauser ◽  
Tribikram Kundu
Keyword(s):  
Guided Waves ◽  
Guided Wave ◽  
Ultrasonic Guided Waves ◽  
Reinforcing Steel ◽  
Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Steel Bar ◽  
Acoustic Transducer ◽  
Steel Bars ◽  
Aging Infrastructure

This paper explores the feasibility of detecting and quantifying corrosion and delamination at the interface between reinforcing steel bar and concrete using ultrasonic guided waves. The problem of corrosion and delamination of the reinforcing steel in the aging infrastructure has increased significantly in the last three decades and is likely to keep on increasing. Ultrasonic cylindrical guided waves that can propagate a long distance along the reinforcing steel bar are found to be sensitive to the interface conditions between steel bar and concrete. Ultrasonic transducers are used to launch and detect cylindrical guided waves along the steel bar. The traditional ultrasonic testing methods, for instance the pulse-echo method, where reflection, transmission, and scattering of longitudinal waves are used for detecting large voids in concrete, are not very efficient for detecting corrosion and delamination at the interface between concrete and steel bar. For this study four sets of specimens were prepared. They are rebars and plain steel bars with corrosion and physical separation. Transducers used during the experiment are the Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) and the Piezoelectric Transducer (PZT). The experiment suggests that the guided wave inspection technique is feasible for the health monitoring of reinforced concrete structures. It also reveals that the ultrasonic guided waves are sensitive to the type of steel used and to the rib patterns on the reformed steel bars.

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